Fired by 74-year-old President Donald Trump Aug. 18, 2017, 66-year-old former Breitbat editor and Trump strategist Steve Bannon was taken into custody off by Postal agents at his Mystic, Conn. Yacht, accused of wire and bank fraud in connection with “We Build The Wall” GoFundMe Website. Bannon was Trump’s chief strategist during the campaign but received no portfolio position in the White House before Trump gave him the ax eight months after inauguration. Bannon posted a $5 million bond today, about $500,000, showing he was not short of cash at the time of his arrest. Government agents from the Postal Service and FBI accused of Bannon of diverting funds for his own gain and that of Bannon’s Co-Defendant Brian Kolfage who received untold sums of cash when the Website said “every penny” of fund raising would go to building Trump’s Mexican border wall.
Bannon’s “We Build the Wall” Website promised to that all collected funds would be used to build the wall or “refund every single penny,” the indictment read. “These representations were false,” moving ahead with indictments of Bannon Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea, all of whom were involved in the Website. Since launching in Dec. 2018, the site collected $17 million, raising up to $25 million. Today’s indictment says Bannon received over $1 million, paid to a nonprofit used to pay Bannon and Kolfage. “By using fake invoices and sham ‘vendor’ arrangements,” the group managed to pay themselves without public knowledge, violating promises made on the Website that “every penny” would go to the wall. Prosecutors contend that Bannon and Kolfage “repeatedly and falsely” paid themselves while telling the public that they would “not take a penny.”
GoFundMe raised concerns that the money collected was not going for the intended purpose, telling Kofage to identify a legitimate nonprofit or the cash would be returned to the donors. Federal prosecutors claim Bannon and Badolato created a nonprofit “We Build the Wall Inc., where an attempt was made to launder money. Bannon and his friends were charged with money laundering, bank fraud and wire fraud in connection to managing funds from “We Build the Wall” GoFundMe Page. Federal authorities said once Bannon and his partners found they were under federal investigation, they “took additional steps to conceal the fraudulent scheme,” including stopping Kolfage’s salary, removing text from the Website saying he would not be compensated, signaling he would take a salary Jan. 2020, continuing to conceal payments made to Bannon, Kolfage, Shea and Badolato.
Trump said he felt “very badly” when he heard Bannon and his friends faced indictment over the We Build the Wall” Website. “As alleged, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interests in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction,” said Acting U.S. Atty. Audrey Strauss. All the defendants, including, Bannon, received large sum of cash from the Website, despite assuring donors that “every penny” would go to wall construction. “While repeatedly assuring donors that Birian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousand of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle,” Strauss wrote, serving notice that the government would not tolerate such fraud.
Bannon agreed to let Kolfage use his named because of its association with the Trump campaign, lending credibility to the Website. Raising $25 million so quickly shows how Bannon’s name carried enormous cloutt while Kolfage executed his plan to generate millions in a short period of time. Bannon and his co-defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Trump said he felt “very badly” for his once chief strategists, caught in another legal vice, like other’s who once worked for the campaign. Trump confirmed he’s had no contact with his once controversial political strategist, accused like others of various felonies. Trump parted ways with Bannon precisely because he became part of the daily news, covering his controversial activities like his alleged white supremacy.
Uncovering a GoFundMe scam, federal authorities continue to do their jobs in the age of Covid-19. Receiving over $1 million to put his name on Kolfage’s “We build the Wall” Website was a brilliant way of generating millions. Bannon, Kolfage, Shea and Badolato have a lot of explaining to do to federal authorities before the fund-raising scam can be put into perspective. “I haven’t been dealing with him at all,” Trump said of Bannon, confirming he didn’t “know anything about the project at all,” saying he “didn’t like it.” “I though it was being don for showboating reasons,” Trump said, letting voters know that he didn’t have a clue what Bannon was up to. Unlike Roger Stone or Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump won’t show much sympathy for Bannon if he looks for a pardon or commutation. “I though it was being don for showboating reasons,” Trump said of Bannon’s “We Build the Wall” Website.
