THOUSANDS of people who donated to Steve Bannon's We Build The Wall fundraising efforts say they were swindled, according to prosecutors.
Bannon, a former adviser to Donald Trump, was arrested along with three others in relation to the allegations of fraud made on behalf of the individuals who gave donations.
When was Steve Bannon arrested?
On August 20, 2020, former political advisor to Trump, Steve Bannon, was arrested.
The Attorney’s Office – Southern District of New York confirmed that Bannon was arrested that Thursday morning for defrauding donors in a border wall scheme.
Police officials apprehended him along with Brian Kolfage, Andred Badolato, and Timothy Shea, who were also charged in connection with the fraud claims.
They were each facing one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering – each of these carries a 20-year prison sentence.
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What was Steve Bannon charged with?
Bannon and the four aforementioned individuals were indicted for illegally funneling funds.
The four were busted on charges stemming from claims they ripped off donors to the We Build The Wall online fundraising scheme.
Bannon and three others "orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors,” federal prosecutors alleged.
"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," Acting US Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement.
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"While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle."
On January 20, 2021, for one of his last acts as president, Trump pardoned Bannon before he departed the White House and absolved him of the charges.
What is the 'We Build The Wall' fund?
The We Build The Wall is a fundraising campaign to build a wall along the United States' southern border.
The crowdfunded effort has raised more than $25million.
"Our mission is to unite private citizens that share a common belief in providing national security for our Southern Border through the construction, administration, and maintenance of physical barriers inhibiting illegal entry into the United States," the official website for We Build The Wall states.
Court documents state that the four men defrauded Trump supporters with an online crowdfunding campaign to build a wall along the southern border of the United States.
The indictment alleged that Bannon, Kolfage, Badolato and Shea used the millions of dollars "in a manner inconsistent with with the organization's public representations."
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It explains how Bannon allegedly pocketed $1million from We Build the Wall, and used it to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own expenses.
All four of the men allegedly created a shell company, Non-profit-1, to conceal their personal payouts.
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