BANNON ‘BILKS’ THAT WALL
Ex-Trump adviser & 3 pals busted in $1M border-barrier funding 'scheme'
Steve Bannon, the former adviser to President Trump, skimmed $1 million from a campaign claiming to raise money to build the border wall, Manhattan federal prosecutors said Thursday after arresting the political operative.
Bannon, 66, and three others — a triple-amputee Air Force veteran, a venture capitalist and the owner of an energy-drink company — used cash raised through the We Build the Wall campaign to instead build their bank accounts, a federal indictment alleges.
The former chief strategist for Trump funneled $1 million in contributions meant for the effort through a nonprofit under his control, prosecutors say.
He was arrested at around 7:15 a.m. aboard the Lady May, a $28 million, 150foot yacht owned by Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, a fugitive wanted in Beijing on fraud, blackmail and bribery charges. Wengui has denied the raps.
Law-enforcement agents, including US Postal Service inspectors, delivered Bannon from the yacht near Westbrook, Conn., to Manhattan federal court, where he was arraigned in the afternoon.
His attorney, William Burck, entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.
Bannon, who appeared via video from a holding cell, repeatedly rocked back and forth in his seat during the brief hearing He was handcuffed and wearing a white mask over his sunburnt face.
A judge approved his release on $5 million bond, which was secured by $1.75 million in assets.
Audrey Strauss, acting US attorney in Manhattan, said Bannon and his co-defendants swindled donors by “capitalizing on their interest” to build the wall and telling them “that all of that money would be spent on construction.”
The founder of We Build the Wall, Iraq War veteran Brian Kolfage, 38, had promised 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.
The campaign was an initial hit on GoFundMe, raising $17 million in its first week. But GoFundMe yanked it, saying Kolfage must transfer the funds to a nonprofit or else the site would have to refund donors.
Kolfage, Bannon and Andrew Badolato, 56, a venture capitalist with whom Bannon was already working, formed the nonprofit We Build the Wall Inc., which promised to fund the private construction of the border wall.
The three men told GoFundMe that donors would be able to opt in to transferring their contributions to the nonprofit, the indictment says.
Kolfage insisted he would “not take a penny in salary or compensation,” and the crew saw a golden opportunity, with Badolato saying the no-pay pledge “removes all self-interest taint” and gives Kolfage “sainthood,” the filing claims.
The alleged cover allowed Bannon, Kolfage, Badolato and a fourth man, Timothy Shea, to broker a secret deal to pay Kolfage $100,000 upfront and then $20,000 a month in payments that were
allegedly passed through Bannon’s nonprofit and a shell company controlled by Shea, court papers said.
But Bannon, the former leader of Breitbart News, made it clear he was running the show, prosecutors alleged.
There would be “no deals I don’t approve,” he allegedly texted Badolato.
Some of the payouts were concealed as payments to Kolfage’s wife, Ashley, for “media,” with others marked for “social media,” prosecutors say.
“As far as [the public] know[s] no one is getting paid,” Kolfage texted Badolato, according to prosecutors. He also allegedly wrote that “salaries will never be disclosed.” Kolfage also sent mass e-mails to donors asking them to buy products from his other business, a coffee seller, telling them the company was the only way he “keeps his family fed and a roof over their head,” according to the indictment. He also compiled millions of e-mail addresses and phone numbers to start a political consulting business, according to The Daily Beast.
By May 2019, the nonprofit faced mounting scrutiny from the public after failing to start construction on the wall. At the time, Kolfage repeated claims that the group would “break ground in a matter of days.”
He also told donors that “there’s no update because we are remaining silent for a very good reason.”
Five months later, the foursome caught wind that the feds were probing their efforts and began using encrypted messaging services, court papers say.
They also changed We Build the Wall’s Web site to remove any mention that Kolfage was not being compensated, adding a statement that Kolfage would start receiving a salary in January 2020.
All told, Bannon raked in $1 million through his nonprofit, with some of the funds going toward Kolfage’s monthly payments and other personal expenses, prosecutors claimed.
Kolfage, a Florida resident, allegedly swiped more than $350,000, blowing it on a boat, a luxury SUV, a golf cart, jewelry, cosmetic surgery, personal tax payments and credit-card debt, the indictment says.
Badolato and Shea, 49 — owner of Winning Energy, which sells a canned energy drinks claiming to contain “liberal tears” — also received “hundreds of thousands of dollars in donor funds.”
The four men 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.
Shortly after the charges were announced on Thursday, Trump expressed sympathy for Bannon, but distanced himself from the fundraising effort.
“I think it’s a very sad thing for Mr. Bannon. I think it’s surprising,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
“I didn’t like that project. I thought that was a project that was being done for showboating reasons. I don’t know that he was in charge. I didn’t know any of the other people, either, but it’s sad.”
In 2018, Bannon was praised by Donald Trump Jr. for his fundraiser.
“What you guys are doing is pretty amazing,” Trump Jr. said with Kolfage next to him, adding that the fundraising effort was “what capitalism is all about.”
The next year, Kolfage posted a photo of him and Ashley with Eric Trump.
“Had a great night at Mar a Lago, supporting We Build The Wall with the Trumpette’s group!” he wrote on Facebook.
Bannon claimed as he was leaving court Thursday that the charges were political.
“This entire fiasco is to stop people who want to build the wall,” he said.