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US-POLITICS-CRIME-FRAUD-BANNON
Ex-Trump aide Steve Bannon arrested in border wall fraud case
NEW YORK, Aug 21, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Former top Trump strategist Steve Bannon
was arrested and charged Thursday along with three others for defrauding
hundreds of thousands of donors in a Mexico border wall fundraising campaign,
in a blow to the Republican incumbent.
The man credited with orchestrating Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid
denied one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and another of conspiracy
to commit money laundering, according to US media. He was released on $5
million bail.
“This entire fiasco is to stop people who want to build the wall,” he told
reporters outside court, smiling broadly as he removed his face mask and got
into a waiting car.
The online crowdfunding campaign known as “We Build the Wall” raised more
than $25 million, prosecutors said, which the defendants promised would go
towards construction of a southern border barrier but which they instead
siphoned off.
The arrest is the latest in a string of high-profile criminal probes into
Trump’s inner circle, and comes just months before the November vote in which
the Republican hopes to win re-election.
The president aimed to distance himself from the plot, saying: “Don’t know
anything about the project at all.”
“I think it’s a very sad thing for Mr Bannon,” Trump said, adding he felt
“very badly” and he hasn’t “been dealing with him for a long period.”
Manhattan federal prosecutors said Bannon, the organization’s founder Brian
Kolfage, venture capitalist Andrew Badolato and owner of a pro-Trump energy
drink company Timothy Shea, “received hundreds of thousands of dollars in
donor funds from We Build the Wall, which they each used in a manner
inconsistent with the organization’s public representations.”
Federal postal inspectors intercepted Bannon, 66, on a $35 million, 150-
foot yacht off the coast of Connecticut, according to The New York Times. The
paper said the boat belonged to Guo Wengui, the exiled Chinese tycoon.
– Early suspicions –
The fundraising scheme began in 2018 as a GoFundMe campaign to raise money
organizers said would go towards the border wall Trump promised during his
2016 campaign.
One week after launching, the online appeal took in $17 million, which
raised suspicions at the crowdfunding site and prompted it to temporarily
shut the campaign down.
GoFundMe said organizers would need to identify a legitimate nonprofit
where the money was headed or it would be returned.
The four men began using both a Bannon-controlled non-profit and a Shea-led
shell company, as well as vendor agreements and fake invoices, to conceal
their tracks, court documents said.
Prosecutors say the men gave repeated false assurances to donors, vowing
that all funds raised would go “only directly to wall!!! Not anyone’s
pocket.”
Kolfage, a Florida-based 38-year-old, at one point even urged donors to
purchase coffee from another company he ran, saying it was the only way to
keep “his family fed and a roof over their head,” prosecutors said.
– Boat payments and plastic surgery –
Some donors wrote personally to Kolfage saying they were low on funds and
skeptical of online fundraising, “but they were giving what they could
because they trusted Kolfage would keep his word about how their donations
would be spent,” the indictment said.
Kolfage — a US Air Force veteran and triple amputee wounded while serving
in Iraq — repeatedly assured them their money was safe, but in fact,
prosecutors say he took more than $350,000 for his own use, funding personal
expenses including boat payments, a luxury SUV, a golf cart, cosmetic surgery
and credit card debt.
Badolato, Shea and Bannon each received hundreds of thousands that went to
expenses including travel, hotels and consumer goods, according to the
documents.
Bannon in particular received over $1 million of the donations which he
funneled through his non-profit, using some of it to pay Kolfage while a
substantial sum lined his own pockets.
The men learned their scheme might be under federal criminal investigation
in approximately October 2019, when they began crafting additional measures
to conceal it, prosecutors said.
– Another Trump aide indictment –
Prior to leading Trump’s 2016 presidential bid, Bannon — a brash,
aggressively conservative proponent of US nationalism — headed the far-right
outlet Breitbart News.
Once a prominent voice in the president’s ear, Bannon was behind some of
Trump’s most controversial moves, including his ban on some travelers from
abroad and the decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate
change agreement.
After frequent clashes with others in the White House including Trump,
Bannon was pushed out in August 2017.
Half a dozen close Trump associates have been indicted or convicted since
he took over the White House, including several key leaders of his 2016
campaign effort.
Roger Stone — the president’s longtime ally who was convicted on felony
charges including obstructing the congressional Russian collusion probe —
was the first person directly involved in Trump’s campaign to receive
clemency.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0829 hrs