Wheeling’s 'Whodunit?' – Charges filed in anonymous mailer investigation
Anand Patel faces misdemeanor charges related to his alleged involvement in a campaign to send anonymous, ‘negative’ political mailers days before the 2024 municipal election in Wheeling.
WHEELING, W.Va. – Last year, thousands of anonymous mailers targeting candidates in Wheeling’s mayoral and council races – as well as a candidate in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate – flooded area mailboxes days before the May 14 election. A recently filed criminal complaint alleges a local man was behind them.
The complaint, filed on April 28, alleges Anand Arvind Patel, former manager of the Wheeling Inn, ordered and paid for the mailers, failed to disclose those payments to the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office and provided false statements to influence the election.
Charles W. Jackson, former Brooke County Sheriff, was the lead Secretary of State investigator who filed the complaint. Timothy E. Haught, Wetzel County Prosecuting Attorney, is named as the special prosecutor for the case.
The allegations…
The criminal complaint alleges Patel paid $14,570.74 to Go Union Printing of St. Petersburg, Fla. for 12,501 mailers. The mailers “[concerned] several candidates in the Wheeling area” and “were mostly negative in nature…and contained no required information of their origin, or source of funding,” the complaint reads.
Patel is also alleged to have used a “false post office box” belonging to Wheeling resident Louis Smith to send the mailers. Despite months of uncertainty on the status of the investigation, Smith spoke at an April 2025 city council meeting saying the Secretary of State’s office informed him the case was still ongoing.
For these alleged offenses, Patel faces nine misdemeanor charges for publishing an anonymous letter aiding the election or defeat of a candidate (W.Va. Code § 3-8-12(a)) and another nine misdemeanor charges for his failure to report an election-related expenditure of more than $500 (W.Va. Code § 3-8-2(d)(1)).
Two of the mailers appeared to show support for Beth Hinebaugh’s run for mayor. A third mailer accused mayoral candidate Rosemary Ketchum of “recruiting extremists” to run for office, including a candidate in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate. The complaint states neither Hinebaugh nor Ketchum knew the origins of the mailers.
A fourth mailer targeted Councilor Ben Seidler as he ran for re-election representing the city’s second ward. It featured specific information from two police incident reports at Seidler’s personal residence. Investigator’s later learned that Patel was the only person to obtain the information via Freedom of Information Act requests.
These allegations resulted in the filing of two misdemeanor charges against Patel for publishing communication about a candidate without their authorization (W.Va. Code § 3-8-2(f)(1)) and two misdemeanor charges for causing the publication of false statements in regard to any candidate intended to affect the outcome of an election (W.Va. Code § 3-8-11(c)).
Patel faces 29 misdemeanor charges for his alleged crimes. Statutorily, the charges could see Patel pay up to $10,000 in fines and serve no more than five years in jail.
At an initial court appearance before Ohio County Magistrate Judge Patricia L. Murphy on May 29, Patel stated he would represent himself in the proceedings. He was given a $34,500 personal recognizance bond and ordered not to leave the state without the court’s written approval.
Patel is scheduled to return to court on August 7 at 11:30 a.m.
Patel comments on his charges…
Wheeling Free Press contacted Patel and received his comments on the allegations.
“Following a conversation with the special prosecutor today, I’ve been informed that nearly all of the charges will be dismissed on constitutional grounds, as only two of the nine public interest mailers are even alleged to contain false information,” Patel wrote.
Patel’s comments became increasingly rambling after his first statement, writing that he “welcomed” if his charges brought up other issues related to “how 911 calls are classified as domestic violence,” “how a far-left network, backed by coastal money, is trying to infiltrate West Virginia politics,” and “how City Manager Bob Herron attempted to hide $500,000 through the City’s development arm after a failed property ‘acquisition’ [assumedly the Wheeling Inn] by force — an how, now surrounded by a group of puppets, his 20-year grip on power remains unchecked.”
Patel ended his statement by citing McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission (1995) as a “follow-up.” In that case, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that an Ohio law banning anonymous campaign literature was unconstitutional as it violated the First Amendment. It’s unclear how that case relates to charges alleging Patel failed to disclose his alleged electioneering, among other charges.
On the frontlines…
Wheeling Free Press was the first – and remains the only – media organization to publish an investigation related to the May 2024 anonymous mailers and Patel’s alleged involvement.
In a story published on May 11, Wheeling Free Press identified Patel as the only individual to obtain specific information from two police incident reports regarding Seidler that later appeared on an anonymous mailer. That same information is included within the criminal complaint.
In an follow-up story shared on May 16, Wheeling Free Press identified a suspicious user on the freelance website Fiverr called ‘anandpatel241’ who purchased services from accounts offering flyer designs, political caricatures, video advertisements, commercials, video editing and AI voiceovers.
In one of the comments from ‘anandpatl241’ on Fiverr, the user thanked a freelancer for their work on a political cartoon that appeared to depict Wheeling mayoral candidate J.T. Thomas. The cartoon’s file name reads simply as “Thomas.”
This is a developing story that will be updated.