On Thursday, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was among four people indicted on charges of allegedly defrauding donors in an online fundraising scheme, “We Build The Wall.”
We Build the Wall is a crowdfunding campaign that has raised more than $25 million from hundreds of thousands of donors.
US Attorney Audrey Strauss from the Southern District of New York announced that her office has pressed charges against Steve Bannon, Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, and Timothy Shea in relation to the ‘We Build The Wall’ online fundraising campaign.
Leaders of ‘We Build The Wall’ online fundraising campaign charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors https://t.co/cH2abWm2Ph pic.twitter.com/NKxfKXkcEX
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) August 20, 2020
Bannon is accused of funneling over $1 million from the We Build the Wall fund through a non-profit under his control. It is alleged that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been used for Bannon’s personal expenses and a portion of the money was redirected to Brian Kolfage.
Brian Kolfage allegedly spent the “Build the Wall” funds on a boat and plastic surgery, according to the feds.
The trio’s scheme allegedly involved concealing payments to Kolfage by routing his personal payments from the We Build the Wall fund through a non-profit shell company under Bannon and Shea’s control, federal agents said they learned through their investigation and a review of text messages exchanged by the men. The four men involved apparently made fake invoices and sham vendor arrangements in order to keep payments to Kolfage secret.
Read the charging documents below. App users can click here.
KolfageIndictment.pdf by Fox News on Scribd
Each of these federal felony offenses carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Each defendant faces a maximum of 40 years of in prison.
President Trump in the past has slammed the project for not building their section up to the standard that he wants it to be.
I disagreed with doing this very small (tiny) section of wall, in a tricky area, by a private group which raised money by ads. It was only done to make me look bad, and perhsps it now doesn’t even work. Should have been built like rest of Wall, 500 plus miles. https://t.co/L8RUPCAhqc
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2020
