TOLEDO, Ohio — On Friday, Sir Maejor Page was arrested on charges of wire fraud and money laundering by the FBI. His charges were related to claims of a misappropriation of funds meant to be donations to the Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta organization that allegedly were used for personal purchases instead - totaling over $200,000.
Page had utilized GoFundMe to host donation campaigns for BLMGA. After his arrest, GoFundMe pulled all campaigns raising funds for BLMGA.
A spokesperson for GoFundMe, Madeline Purdue, released a statement late Friday in regards to how the fundraising website was handling the situation.
In addition to removing all campaigns for BLMGA, Purdue said that GoFundMe would honor refund requests from anyone who donated to a BLMGA-affiliated campaign.
Donors can make a refund request through GoFundMe's website.
Purdue said that the collective amount of funds raised by campaigns run by Page and BLMGA had reached $13,154 before they were removed from the website.
GoFundMe has banned Page from creating future campaigns.
BLMGA was also removed from the PayPal Giving Fund's database - a database used by GoFundMe that also allows users to contribute directly to charitable organizations through PayPal.
The full statement from GoFundMe is available below:
"I can confirm that we removed the fundraisers associated with Tyree Conyers-Page and the Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta organization, which collectively raised $13,154. He has also been banned from using the GoFundMe platform for any future campaigns. If any donor would like to request a refund, we will process it for them.
GoFundMe utilizes PayPal Giving Fund's database to enable people to fundraise for a charity. GoFundMe has taken action to ensure you can no longer start a GoFundMe for BLMGA.
PayPal has also confirmed BLMGA has been removed from its database. Campaigns with misuse are very rare, and we take all complaints very seriously. Our team is working with law enforcement and assisting them in the investigation."