Steve Bannon, the former chief executive of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, speaks with members of the media outside federal court after testifying in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, November 8, 2019.
Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Former White House Chief of Staff Steve Bannon has been arrested after being accused of defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors through his “We Build the Wall” campaign.
Bannon, along with three of his employees, were charged Thursday by investigators in the U.S. Southern District of New York. They claim that the group of conservative leaders is deceiving donors and that led to “more than $ 25 million euros to build a wall along the southern border of the United States,” according to the press release.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service assisted in the investigation.
The others named in the indictment are Timothy Shea, who was announced in May as the acting director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Brian Kolfage, a war veteran in Iraq, and Andrew Badolato.
The campaign was intended to raise money to help President Donald Trump deliver on a campaign promise to build a border wall along the border. Instead, prosecutors claim that Bannon and his team benefited from the scheme.
Prosecutors allege that the suspects “collectively received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from ‘We Build the Wall,’ which they each used in a manner that was contrary to the organization’s public representations,” according to the indictment.
“The suspects defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, and capitalized on their interest in financing a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all that money would be spent on construction,” U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement. “While donors repeatedly insisted that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the suspects secretly pledged hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to make his generous “We thank the USPIS for its partnership in investigating this case, and we remain committed to depletion and prosecution of fraud wherever we find it.”
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
.
