Jacob Fatu is being accused of ghosting a charity after he no-showed a fundraising event.
NBC 26 (Wisconsin) recently spoke with Jake’s Network of Hope Director of Development, Jenn Harper, who claims MLW star Jacob Fatu no-showed its “Hits For Hope” fundraising event. Jake’s provides toys and hygiene products, among other items, to a variety of organizations.
Harper says Fatu was booked for the event but called and said there was a family emergency preventing him from appearing.
“We gave him the benefit of the doubt. At Jake’s, we are 100% about family and I said, ‘if you can’t make it, that’s fine,’” Harper said.
Harper says she asked to be reimbursed for the total amount of booking him, and he has since ghosted the organization.
“We rescheduled the flight that he missed originally, and about an hour after that flight took off, we were made aware from him that he wasn’t coming. After that, he ghosted us, he ghosted the production team that puts together the wrestling show, and he ghosted the person that booked him for us,” Harper said.
Harper asked to be reimbursed a total of $2,633, which she says included the following:
- $1,030 (pre-paid) for Fatu’s appearance
- $548 on a hotel stay for him
- $657 on an initial flight
- $348 on a flight change at his request
- $50 on 8×10 posters that were printed for him to autograph at the event
Harper says Jake’s was going to remain quiet about Fatu’s behavior until they’d heard from other organizations that had similar issues with him. Other organizations, including Pro Wrestling KING in Indiana, have also accused Fatu of similar behavior.
“That’s why at Jake’s we decided that we wanted to speak up alongside of these organizations, so that this didn’t continue to happen to other people,” she said.
Harper said a “major name” from Fatu’s wrestling family has since heard about the ordeal and offered to appear at the next wrestling fundraiser. Jacob Fatu has not responded to requests for comment on the situation from NBC 26.
In addition to his independent career, Jacob Fatu is the current MLW National Openweight Champion and he appears regularly on MLW programming.
