EAST PALESTINE — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has announced a lawsuit against a “sham charity” that claimed to be collecting donations to benefit residents of East Palestine following the Norfolk Southern train derailment.
According to a release from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, Yost’s lawsuit alleges Mike Peppel presented his Ohio Clean Water Fund as a nonprofit organization acting on behalf of Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley to provide residents with emergency aid and bottled water.
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Peppel and others pocketed at least $131,000 of the roughly $141,000 raised from more than 3,000 donors, Yost alleged.
“The idea that somebody would so brazenly exploit a disaster situation and the good hearts of people who want to help is unconscionable,” Yost said. “I’m mad as hell about this, and we’re going to make sure this sham charity gets shut down.”
Second Harvest Food Bank confronted Peppel twice to tell him to stop advertising the non-existent partnership, according to Yost’s office.
“To date, and only after he was called out, Peppel has paid only $10,000 to the food bank, a mere 7% of what Peppel admits he raised,” Yost’s office said.
Yost encourages those who want to make charitable donations to research charities and ask the right questions. For more information, you can click here.