https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...nnon-arrested-charged-fraud-we-build-the-wallSteve Bannon arrested and charged with fraud over border wall campaign
Bannon and three others allegedly defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors in connection with ‘We Build the Wall’
Former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon was arrested on Thursday for his alleged role in skimming donations from “We Build the Wall”, an online fundraising campaign for the US president’s controversial border wall with Mexico, officials in New York said.
Three other men, Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea, were also arrested in this alleged scheme to defraud the non-profit, which authorities said raised more than $25m.
The Hartford Courant newspaper reported that Bannon was arrested onboard a mega-yacht called Lady May that is owned by a Chinese billionaire that had been sailing off the coast of Connecticut.
The charges, made by the Department of Justice’s southern district of New York (SDNY), were contained in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Bannon and three others “orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors”.
According to the indictment, promises were made that 100% of the donated money would be used for the project.
But it alleged they faked invoices and sham “vendor” arrangements, among other ways, to hide what was really happening.
The men are facing one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Each count has a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
Bannon was chief executive officer of Trump’s election campaign in its final months in 2016 and later served as the president’s chief strategist for seven months during the turbulent early phase of the administration. He was fired as a top adviser to the president in the summer of 2017, though recently Trump is said to have been talking about him positively.
A phone at the office of Bannon’s lawyer went unanswered on Thursday morning. A spokeswoman for Bannon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He is expected to appear later on Thursday in Manhattan federal court.
The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, distanced the president from the scheme, saying he had “not been involved” with Bannon since the campaign and the early part of the administration, and he did not know the other people.
She said: “As everyone knows, President Trump has no involvement in this project and felt it was only being done in order to showboat, and perhaps raise funds. President Trump has previously and publicly stated the following: ‘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 perhaps it now doesn’t even work.’”
It has been previously reported by the New York Times that the president had given the private project his blessing.
In a statement, acting US attorney Audrey Strauss said that the fund capitalized on donors’ interest in building a border wall while instead funneling millions of dollars to fund the “lavish lifestyle” of We Build the Wall founder and public face Brian Kolfage.
Philip Bartlett, inspector in charge of the US Postal Inspection Service’s (USPIS) New York field office, which was a partner on this investigation, said: “As alleged, not only did they lie to donors, they schemed to hide their misappropriation of funds by creating sham invoices and accounts to launder donations and cover up their crimes, showing no regard for the law or the truth.”
The We Build the Wall campaign started in 2018 as a GoFundMe by Kolfage, a military veteran, who has described some people crossing the southern border without documents as terrorists and drug traffickers and accused border wall critics as being cartel collaborators. The campaign created a video posted on YouTube of construction of metal barricades to attract anti-immigrant donors to the campaign.
After Kolfage brought Bannon and Badolato into the fundraising campaign, “within days”, the pair gained “significant control” of this fundraiser, such as its messaging, donor outreach and finances, according to the indictment.
By spring 2019, the group had raised $22m out of its $1bn goal.
In a secret deal with the others, it was alleged, Kolfage “covertly took for his personal use more than $350,000 in funds that donors had given to We Build the Wall”. To hide this, the men “devised a scheme” to direct money siphoned from We Build the Wall to Kolfage through a non-profit and a shell company that Shea controlled, using bogus invoices and “sham” vendor agreements.
Kolfage used the money for expenses, such as “home renovations, payments toward a boat, a luxury SUV, a golf cart, jewelry, cosmetic surgery, personal tax payments and credit card debt”.
The other men each siphoned “hundreds of thousands” in donations, it was said, which they used on personal expenses such as “travel, hotels, consumer goods and personal credit card debts”.
When the men realized that they might be under federal investigation in October 2019, they tried hiding their scheme, using encrypted messaging apps.
Last year, the campaign was seen by the Guardian building a private border wall in south Texas despite a court injunction that ordered the work to be suspended.
“No one is above the law, not even a disabled war veteran or a millionaire political strategist,” said Bartlett, of USPIS.
Trump’s promise to build a wall across the 2,000-mile length of the US border with Mexico was a central part of his campaign to be president and supporters regularly chant “build the wall” at his rallies. Despite fierce opposition in Congress from Democrats, the Trump administration has pledged to erect or replace 450 to 500 miles by the end of 2020, at a cost of almost $18.5bn. While meeting this target is in doubt, construction of the wall has continued in some areas despite the coronavirus pandemic.
The White House said on Thursday 300 miles of border wall had been built, adding: “Our southern border is more secure than it has ever been.”
Not only Trump did not built the wall he promised but his buddies scammed the American people, asking them money to build it and then using that to finance their expensive lmifestyle...
