The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Bannon allowed to travel to Conn. for work
When Steve Bannon’s vacation on a yacht was disrupted just off the coast of Westbrook last week, the news made international headlines. What he was vacationing from, though, is still a mystery — but it appears Connecticut is part of that picture.
A sunburned and scruffy Bannon, one of four men taken into custody and charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors to an online crowdfunding campaign called “We Build the Wall,” pleaded not guilty to the charges in a federal court in Manhattan. As part of his bail package, the former top Trump adviser is allowed to travel only to the New York City area, as well as Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia and certain portions of Connecticut
“for work.”
What’s not known publicly is what precisely, or even loosely, that work is. The answer could be anything, for a guy who has made a living in banking, entertainment, political consulting, media and more — and hasn’t worked as a corporate employee since the early 1990s.
Multiple calls to Bannon’s Washington, D.C. lawyer, as well as the U.S. Attorneys in the Southern District of New York and the District of Connecticut were not returned Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Bannon does not appear to own property in Connecticut.
Calls to Republican insiders in Connecticut turned up nothing about what Bannon might be doing here.
Just days before his arrest, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bannon and exiled anti-communist Chinese businessman Guo Wengui — who owns the yacht they were on last week — had raised more than $300 million in a private offering for a company called GTV Media. The funding was now being investigated by federal and state authorities, the news report said.
Guo, one of China’s most-wanted fugitives, and Bannon were two of the key people behind GTV Media’s launch this spring, according to the Wall Street Journal. Documents reviewed by the newspaper identify Bannon as a company director, and indicate Guo served as the public face for its fundraising.
The company’s website appears to mimic several social media platforms, including YouTube and Twitter, but is not available in English. The home page shows numerous videos in Mandarin, many with political content.
One is President Donald Trump’s speech Thursday night, translated with commentary. Another shows Bannon’s “War Room: Pandemic” broadcast, translated. In another, dated Aug. 28, Guo is wearing aviator sunglasses, in an office, smoking a cigarette, referring to a possible successor to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who resigned for health reasons. “I have been in contact with the next Japanese prime minister,” he says in Mandarin. “As long as he gets in power, he will help me get the Communist Party out within a month.”