'WE BUILD THE WALL' FUNDRAISER A FRAUD

Former White House adviser Steve Bannon indicted on fraud charges

By Lia Eustachewich

New York Post
August 20, 2020

Former White House adviser Steve Bannon has been indicted on charges he defrauded donors to a $25 million campaign to build a border wall, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Thursday.

Bannon and others are accused of ripping off donations to the “We Build the Wall” online fundraiser.

Audrey Strauss, acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the defendants “defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction.”

Bannon, the former chief strategist to President Trump, personally pocketed $1 million in contributions meant for construction of the border wall, funneled through a nonprofit under his control, prosecutors alleged.

Meanwhile, “We Build the Wall” founder Brian Kolfage, 38, promised donors he wouldn’t take a single penny from the pot — but Bannon and their cohorts “secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle,” Strauss said.

Bannon, Kolfage and two other men — Andrew Badolato, 56, and Timothy Shea, 49 — allegedly hid the payments to Kolfage by passing them through Bannon’s nonprofit and a shell company that Shea controlled.

They created fake invoices and bogus “vendor” arrangements to make the payments seem legitimate, prosecutors said.

They are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Each charge carries up to 20 years in prison.

All four were arrested Thursday morning, with Bannon, 66, scheduled to appear in Manhattan federal court later in the afternoon.
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Triple amputee Iraq vet and his wife bought boats, an SUV, jewelry and plastic surgery with $350,000 that was stolen from We Build the Wall donations 

Daily Mail
August 20, 2020

Prosecutors allege that Brian Kolfage, a triple amputee and celebrated war veteran, was the main beneficiary of the scheme.

In 2018, Kolfage set up the GoFundMe account in support of President Trump and to prove the nation's appetite for a border wall between the US and Mexico. It was inundated with donations from Republicans and had collected more than $20million by December that year.

GoFundMe became suspicious of where the money was going and warned Kolfage to donate it to a legitimate charity or refund everyone who'd given to it.

That is when, prosecutors say, Bannon, Timothy Shea and Andrew Badolato got involved. They used shell companies and a not-for-profit formed by Bannon to  launder the money back to Kolfage and keep some for themselves, it's claimed.

The fund would pay the shell companies, then they would deposit the money back into accounts held by Kolfage or his wife, marking the transactions down as for 'media', 'consulting' or 'social media', it is alleged.
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Steve Bannon is released on $5 million bail after appearing in court in handcuffs and pleading not guilty to role in $25m border wall fundraiser fraud - hours after being arrested at sea on Chinese billionaire's superyacht 
  
Daily Mail
August 20, 2020

Former Donald Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon pleaded not guilty to being part of an alleged crowd funded border wall scam Thursday - hours after he was arrested at sea aboard a 150-foot superyacht owned by Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui.

Bannon appeared in federal court in Manhattan to answer charges of defrauding hundreds of thousands of people as part of a group pledging to use private donations to build a section of border wall.

At his hearing Thursday afternoon, Bannon, 66, had his hands cuffed in front of him while a large, white mask covered most of his face. He was still wearing his distinctive two shirts.

Magistrate Judge Stewart Aaron approved his release on $5 million bail, secured by $1.75 million in assets.

Two 'financially responsible' co-signers will have to guarantee his bail and he was ordered to surrender his passport and banned from traveling outside Washington D.C. or contacting his co-defendants without permission. He was specifically banned from private planes and yachts. 

Chinese authorities have accused Wengui of fraud.