Steve Bannon Associates Sentenced to Prison for 'We Build the Wall' Fundraising Scam

Steve Bannon and several other associates of former President Donald Trump have been indicted on fraud charges connected to a border wall fundraising scheme dubbed "We Build the Wall."

The scheme allegedly turned out to be a scam, with Bannon and others taking the money for themselves.

Brian Kolfage, the co-founder of the fundraising group that promised to help Trump construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, was sentenced to four years and three months in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty.

Kolfage, an Air Force veteran who lost an arm and both legs in the Iraq War, admitted to siphoning donations from the "We Build the Wall" campaign, which reportedly raised $25 million from hundreds of thousands of donors.

Financier Andrew Badolato, a co-defendant, who also pleaded guilty, was sentenced to three years. Another person involved in the case is Colorado businessman Tim Shea. However, he will not be sentenced until June.

Aside from their prison sentences, Kolfage and Badolato were also ordered to pay $25 million in restitution to their victims, the Associated Press reported.

Why Was Steve Bannon Not Sentenced?

Steve Bannon was notably absent in this federal case because Donald Trump had already pardoned him during his final hours in office after the former White House adviser was initially arrested aboard a luxury yacht in connection with these fraud charges, along with the other men.

Presidential pardons reportedly apply only to federal crimes and not state offenses. Thus, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was able to bring new state charges against Bannon last year. Bannon has called this case "nonsense."

Bannon has remained a close ally of Trump, even after he resigned as the former president's top adviser. While he was pardoned, his three other associates in the scheme, Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, and Tim Shea, were not pardoned by Trump.

Bannon and the three other men were indicted on federal fraud charges for the "We Build the Wall" scheme in 2020, with Kolfage being identified as the one who masterminded the scheme.

As for Shea, he was the only one to face a jury. However, his first trial ended in a mistrial last June after 11 of the 12 jury members wrote to U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan that their 12th member called them "liberals" and accused them of facilitating a "government witch hunt."

Prosecutors said the four men allegedly used fake invoices, sham contracts, and shadowy bank accounts to funnel the money to themselves for personal gain, New York Post reported.

Badolato's lawyer, Kelly Kramer, claimed that Bannon was the "leader and primary beneficiary" of the border wall scheme, adding that his client received a smaller payout than the pardoned associate.

'We Build the Wall' Fundraising Scheme

We Build the Wall, Inc. was a nonprofit that launched a fundraiser in 2018 to pay for parts of Donald Trump's border wall.

However, Steve Bannon and his associates allegedly used some of the donated money for personal use instead of using it to build a border wall.

"As alleged, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest 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. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Audrey Strauss.

According to NPR, Bannon publicly referred to We Build the Wall as a "volunteer organization." However, he allegedly pocketed over $1 million from the organization and used it for personal expenses.

On the other hand, Brian Kolfage reportedly used more than $350,000 of the donor funds for boat payments and cosmetic procedures and to buy a luxury SUV and jewelry. The nonprofit is now defunct.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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