Bannon partners well known for cashing in on ties to Trump
NEW YORK — One is a triple-amputee Iraq war veteran who ran news sites stoking right-wing rage, often with exaggerated stories. Another owns a company that sells Donald Trump-themed energy drinks. And the third is an ex-columnist for Breitbart and an entrepreneur who has left a trail of failed businesses.
The men charged along with former White House strategist Steve Bannon in a scheme to skim hundreds of thousands of dollars from a crowdfunded project to build a border shared a devotion to Mr. Trump and a sometimes-checkered history of trying to make money off his political movement.
Prosecutors say their promises not to take even a penny from the more than $25 million in donations turned out to be lies, allowing them to make such purchases as a luxury Range Rover, a fishing boat, home renovations and cosmetic surgery.
Some court observers believe at least some of the participants believed they could get away with it because their man was in the White House.
“This cast of characters was using Bannon as a front to get the people behind them,” said David S. Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Miami. “Him thinking he wasn’t going to get caught — and if he did, that he would be pardoned — may have factored a little bit into why he was involved.”
At the head of the We Build The Wall venture was 38-year-old veteran Brian Kolfage, of Miramar Beach, Fla., who since losing both legs and an arm in a rocket attack in Iraq has become a conservative activist, motivational speaker and constant presence on social media, haranguing the left, praising Mr. Trump and provoking others.
Another charged Thursday, 49-year-old Timothy Shea, of Castle Rock, Colo., owns an energy drink company called Winning Energy whose cans bear a cartoon superhero image of Mr. Trump and claim to contain 12 ounces of “liberal tears.”
Also indicted was Andrew Badolato, 56, of Sarasota, Fla., who describes himself as a venture capitalist on his personal website and a “hobbyist conservative” enjoying a “new lease on life after suffering a major heart attack in December 2014 and being brought back to life.”
Mr. Bannon has known Mr. Badolato for years, joining forces nearly two decades ago in a publicly traded nasal spray company called Sino-Fresh Healthcare that eventually got tangled up in a legal dispute about corporate funds and other issues. The two also worked on films together, reportedly including planned documentaries on Ronald Reagan and Sarah Palin.
Mr. Badolato touts his contributions to Breitbart News and suggests some of his articles “were responsible for one of the largest national political narrative shifts of the election year.”
We Build the Wall had been under criminal investigation in Florida since last year, after authorities received complaints from donors, and officials there said they referred their findings to the FBI.
“This fraud needs to be shut down and audited immediately,” one complainant wrote, according to records released by the state.