Meet the war vet (and foxy wife)
The Iraq War veteran charged with skimming $350,000 in donations for the US-Mexico border wall blew the cash on his “lavish lifestyle,” including a boat, jewelry and cosmetic surgery, prosecutors said Thursday.
Brian Kolfage, an Air Force veteran and Purple Heart recipient, is accused of pocketing $20,000 a month — and a $100,000 upfront payment — from the viral GoFundMe fund-raiser We Build the Wall, which launched in 2018 and raised $25 million.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Kolfage, 38, also spent the ill-gotten gains on a luxury SUV, a golf cart, personal tax payments and credit-card debt.
Kolfage was seriously wounded in 2004 when a rocket blew up in Iraq leaving him a triple amputee, the Military Times reported.
He married his wife, Ashley,
in 2011, after meeting her years earlier when she was a hostess at a Chili’s restaurant in San Angelo, Texas.
The couple lives in Miramar Beach, Fla., with their young son and daughter.
A self-described “brand influencer” and energydrink model, Ashley has a large online presence, posting numerous bikini shots on Instagram.
On TikTok, Ashley has posed with the couple’s white Range Rover and has recorded herself washing a golf cart.
“What’s everyone’s weekend plans??” she wrote on one post with Brian. “Always can find us on the boat.”
Reached by phone, Ashley defended her husband, who was due in Florida federal court Thursday afternoon, and said she made her own money.
“I don’t think he did anything wrong,” she told The Post.
“I’ll let him speak on his behalf, but I make my own money with all the stuff that I do,” she added. “I have not spent a penny of his money on all of that.”
Brian also keeps his 67,000 followers up to date on his own Instagram account, frequently posting about his beloved boat that sports a Trump 2020 flag.
It was not clear whether the boat was the same one prosecutors say was bought with the GoFundMe donations.
Kolfage was arrested Thursday morning, along with former White House adviser Steve Bannon and two other men, for their alleged roles in the scheme.
Prosecutors allege that some of the cash that flowed to Kolfage was disguised as payments to Ashley for “media” purposes.
Bannon pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Thursday.