Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has filed a lawsuit against Michael Peppel and a non-profit organization Yost alleges Peppel used to solicit over $100,000 in donations that never made it to their promised destination: East Palestine residents.
In early February, a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derailed in the small Ohio town that eventually led to a fiery chemical release that forced residents to evacuate and raised concerns about the quality of air and drinking water for miles around.
Yost said Peppel presented the Ohio Clean Water Fund as a non-profit organization acting on behalf of Second Harvest Food Bank. The fund promised to use donations to provide East Palestine residents with emergency aid and bottled water, but instead "Peppel and others have pocketed at least $131,000 of the roughly $141,000 raised from more than 3,000 donors," according to a press release from Yost's office.
Yost's office received complaints from representatives of the Second Harvest Food Bank that claimed they'd never authorized a partnership with Peppel or an organization called the Ohio Clean Water Fund, despite Peppel's solicitations in mass emails and texts citing the relationship in his requests for donations.
According to the press release, representatives with Second Harvest Food Bank also confronted Peppel himself on two occasions, telling him to stop advertising a partnership that didn't exist.
"To this day, 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," reads the press release from Yost's office.
Yost said he's seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt Peppel and the false non-profit from continuing to solicit donations.
"The idea that somebody would so brazenly exploit a disaster situation and the good hearts of people who want to help is unconscionable," said Yost in the press release. "I'm mad as hell about this and we're going to make sure this sham charity gets shut down."
