Former Donald Trump campaign strategist was arrested Thursday and charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of people as part of a group which promised to use private money to build a section of border wall, a signature issue of the president.
The We Build The Wall scheme raised $25 million to fund its own barriers in Texas and New Mexico, some of which have been built.
The group’s online appeal for funds included a picture of President Trump and a stamp that said ‘Trump Approved.’ His son Don Jr. visited one section in Sunland Park, New Mexico, in July 2019.
Bannon, who helped steer Trump’s campaign then joined him in the White House in 2017 as chief strategist only to be forced out, is accused of pocketing $1 million in the alleged scheme.
He was arrested on a 150-foot yacht off the coast of Westport, Connecticut, NBC News reported.
The group’s founder, Brian Kolfage of Florida, is also accused of fraudulently pocketing funds. He claimed he did not get a cent from the scheme but instead got $100,000 up front and $20,000 a month salary, prosecutors allege.
Kolfage, an Iraq war veteran who had both legs amputated and lost his right arm in a rocket attack, was arrested at his home in Florida.
At the White House Trump denied knowing anything about the scheme and tried to distance himself from his former campaign manager.
‘I feel very badly. I haven’t been dealing with him for a very long period of time,’ he said in the Oval Office, adding: ‘I haven’t been dealing with him at all. It’s a very sad thing by Mr. Bannon.’
‘He was involved in our campaign and for a small part of our administration.’ In fact Bannon was the campaign CEO for its last 88 days after the ousting of Paul Manafort – who is now a convicted felon himself – and then was Trump’s ‘Chief Strategist,’ with a West Wing office close to the Oval Office.
He also tried to distance himself from the scheme despite its ties to his inner circle, saying: ‘I don’t like that project. I thought it was being done for showboating reasons. It was something I very much thought was inappropriate to be doing.’
In handcuffs: Steve Bannon was arrested and was due to be taken to federal court in Manhattan to face a judge on fraud charges
‘Sad.’ Donald Trump, who met Iraqi prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi at the White House, tried to distance himself both from Bannon – saying he had not dealt with him for a long time – and the wall scheme, despite its tied to his family and inner circle
How it was marketed: This was the GoFundMe originally set up to ‘privately fund’ a border wall
Husband and wife scam: Prosecutors say Brian Kolfage funneled cash to himself to pay for boat payments, cosmetic surgery and tax and credit card debt, with his wife Ashley, 34, getting cash which was concealed too. She is not indicted
Trump world star: Donald Trump Jr. visited a section of the wall built by Brian Kolfage’s scheme in New Mexico in July 2019
The stunning indictment of a top former Trump advisor comes on Day Four of the Democratic convention, when Joe Biden is set to speak.
‘No one needed a federal indictment to know that Steve Bannon is a fraud,’ said Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield on a conference call with reporters.
Trump, she said, ‘has consistently used his office to enrich himself, his family and his cronies, so is it really any surprise that yet another one of the grifters he surrounded himself with and placed in the highest levels of government was just indicted? Sadly, it is not.’
The investigation did not involve the FBI – but did involve the U.S. Postal Inspectors. It was led by prosecutors from the public corruption unit of the United States Attorney’s office in Southern News York – the same unit which charged Jeffrey Esptein and arrested Ghislaine Maxwell.
Prosecutors say the group promised donors it was a volunteer effort that would direct all funds toward a crash effort to construct wall without government red tape. In reality, say federal prosecutors in New York, the group’s founders siphoned off funds for themselves.
‘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,’ according to the indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York Thursday morning.
‘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,’ according to the indictment.
‘In particular, to induce donors to donate to the campaign, Kolfage repeatedly and falsely assured the public that he would ‘not take a penny in salary or compensation’ and that ‘100% of the funds raised . . . will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose’ because, as Bannon publicly stated, ‘we’re a volunteer organization.’
The indictment states that Kolfage, 37, who lives in Miramar Beach, Florida, with his wife Ashley, 34, ‘covertly took for his personal use more than $350,000 in funds that donors had given to We Build the Wall’ through a non-profit he controlled.
It states that Bannon, 66, who became wealthy through film investments, consulting, and formerly running the conservative Breitbart website, ‘received over $1 million from We Build the Wall, at least some of which Bannon used to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bannon’s personal expenses.’
Postal Inspector-in-Charge Philip R. Bartlett: ‘As alleged, not only did they lie to donors, they schemed to hide their misappropriation of funds by creating sham invoices and accounts to launder donations and cover up their crimes, showing no regard for the law or the truth.’
The indictment says the alleged fraudsters used a non-profit and a shell company controlled by Kolfage.
They used fake invoices, sham vendors as part of the effort, keeping the system ‘confidential’ and ‘need to know,’ according to the indictment, which quotes from a Kolfage email.
Lavish lifestyle: Brian Kolfage boasted about his private jet travel before – now prosecutors say he continued it
Boats too: Florida-based Brian Kolfage boasted about his lifestyle on Instagram – now prosecutors say innocent donors paid for his way of living including payments on his $600,000 boat
Also indicted are Andrew Badolato of Florida and Timothy Shea of Colorado.
According to financial disclosures when he joined the White House staff, Bannon was worth between $10 million and $48 million in 2017, with most of the value in his consulting firm, Bannon Strategic Advisors.
Trump fired Bannon in Agust 2017 after the adviser publicly disagreed with the administration’s North Korea policy. Trump later said Bannon had ‘lost his mind.’
But more recently Bannon has been an influential Trump world voice, appearing frequently on television and running a podcast where Trump aides are guests. There have been persistent reports of regular contact between the two men, but no known in person meetings.
Board members of We Build the Wall include Erik Prince, a the billionaire mercenary who is and brother of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach – another Trump-world figure who led the failed inquiry into alleged voter fraud – and former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.
Kolfage, a Purple Heart triple amputee veteran behind the effort, pushed back at critics after he was accused in public of using funds to fund a lavish lifestyle – which included flying in private jets and buying a $600,000 boat.
He says he bought the vessel a year before the $20 million GoFundMe campaign for the wall. Kolfage was wounded during the Iraq war in 2004.
Pushing back against online critics, We Build The Wall Inc. posted a video on Facebook that showed a factory producing steel bollards.
They wrote: ‘Just when we thought that the fake news media couldn’t get more ridiculously desperate, they’re now proving how low they’ll go by claiming that ‘We Build The Wall’ founder, Brian Kolfage, bought a yacht with the GoFundMe money
Just weeks ago, Trump tweeted out his dissatisfaction with the project after the group built a section of wall just 35 feet from the Rio Grande river on the U.S.-Mexico border, leading to concerns about erosion and flooding.
‘I disagreed with doing this very small (tiny) section of wall, in a tricky area, by a private group which raised money by ads,’ Trump tweeted. ‘It was only done to make me look bad, and [perhaps] it now doesn’t.’
In Trump world: Brian Kolfage and his wife Ashley were guests at Mar-a-Lago in February last year where they posed with Eric Trump. Kolfage frequently tagged Donald Trump and his son Don Jr. on Instagram
Building the wall: The group have constructed some barrier. Its attorney is Kris Kobach (second right) who is close to Donald Trump and led an inquiry into allegations of voter fraud which wrapped up without finding any
The group also financed wall in Sunland Park, New Mexico, near El Paso, Texas. The group sells tickets for private tours of this section of wall for $20
‘We Build the Wall’ has tackled two projects, the three-mile stretch along the Rio Grande in Texas
The group ‘We Build the Wall’ raised money for construction of this portion of the wall, promoting updates on its social media pages
The explosive indictment comes weeks after Trump fired the U.S. attorney for SDNY in June. It was announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, who has stepped into the role after Trump failed in an effort to install his own preferred replacement.
It charges Bannon used the funds he took to secretly repay Kolfage and cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses.
The group’s original documents posted publicly stated that ‘100 per cent’ of funds would go to the government for wall construction. After Bannon joined the effort, it shifted to building private wall sections.
The group ultimately had to go back to donors to get approval for the new arrangement, and promised them that Kolfage ‘will take no salary.’
Despite ‘numerous public statements’ that Kolfage wouldn’t get paid, the men leading the group reached a ‘secret agreement’ where Kolfage got $100,000 ‘up front’ and ’20 [per] month.’
They ‘schemed’ to pass the payments ‘indirectly’ through third parties due to the prior pledge.
An email from Bannon stated that there would be ‘no deals I don’t approve’ from a non-profit he set up that was used to make the payments, which then went forward at $20,000 per month.
To conceal the payments, Kolfage directed Badolato that payments ‘should be made to KOLFAGE’s spouse,’ according to the indictment. The non-profit issued a 1099 form that nonprofits file with the IRS stating that it had paid Kolfage’s spouse for ‘media.’ That was a reference to Kolfage’s wife Ashley, 34.
The luxury lifestyle of Iraq vet and his TikTok star wife who ‘bought boats, an SUV, jewelry and plastic surgery with $350,000 that was stolen from We Build The Wall donations’
The Iraq veteran charged along with Steve Bannon and two others with stealing money from the We Build The Wall GoFundMe account spent $350,000 on boats, an SUV, plastic surgery, jewelry, home renovations and credit card debt, prosecutors claim.
Prosecutors allege that Brian Kolfage, a triple amputee and celebrated war veteran, was the main beneficiary of the scheme.
In 2018, Kolfage set up the GoFundMe account in support of President Trump and to prove the nation’s appetite for a border wall between the US and Mexico.
It was inundated with donations from Republicans and had collected more than $20million by December that year. GoFundMe became suspicious of where the money was going and warned Kolfage to donate it to a legitimate charity or refund everyone who’d given to it.
That is when, prosecutors say, Bannon, Timothy Shea and Andrew Badolato got involved. They used shell companies and a not-for-profit formed by Bannon to launder the money back to Kolfage and keep some for themselves, it’s claimed.
Scroll down for video
Brian Kolfage, 38 ,and his wife Ashley, 33, were the main beneficiaries of the scheme, according to prosecutors. The pair live in Miramar Beach on Florida’s panhandle. They are pictured on their boat
Kolfage launched the private wall effort in December 2018. He took it off GoFundMe recently because, he claimed, the company was not allowing him to fundraise for victims of assaults by BLM protesters
The fund would pay the shell companies, then they would deposit the money back into accounts held by Kolfage or his wife, marking the transactions down as for ‘media’, ‘consulting’ or ‘social media’, it is alleged.
Despite claiming on the GoFundMe that he’d ‘never take a penny’ from the donations, the indictment alleges that Kolfage took a $20,000-a-month salary from it in addition to a one-off, $100,000 payment. In total, he took $350,000, it’s claimed.
Bannon allegedly took $1million from it – some of which he used to pay Kolfage, but some he allegedly kept and spent on hotels, travel and credit card debt.
While Bannon is the most recognizable name in the indictment, Kolfage, 38, and his wife Ashley, 33, spent the money most enthusiastically.
The pair live with their two children in a $290,000 home in Miramar, on the Florida panhandle.
Ashley is active on Instagram and TikTok, where she shows off their weekends on boats and driving the golf cart prosecutors claim was paid for with the stolen donation money.
Kolfage with former President George Bush. He lost an arm and both his legs in 2004 in Iraq
Ashley describes herself as a model and influencer. She has more than 300,000 TikTok followers and often posts from the couple’s home in Miramar Beach, Florida
One of the things prosecutors claim the pair spent the stolen money on was this golf cart that Ashley is seen washing in a TikTok video
Ashley posing next to the couple’s white Range Rover. An SUVis listed in the indictment as one of the things the couple allegedly bought with stolen money
She sometimes shares photos of Brian on her account. Right, she is seen dancing on their dining table for him
They are flown around the country privately by charities, and spend the majority of the time on the beach.
It is a luxurious lifestyle that they only reached after a devastating 2004 attack in that claimed both his legs and his arm.
Kolfage was stationed at the Balad Air Base in Iraq when on September 11, 2004, his limbs were shattered by a 107-mm mortar shell.
He was flown to Germany, then back to Washington, where he underwent extensive surgeries.
Once he’d been fitted with prosthetics, he moved to Arizona which is where he reconnected with Ashley -then a waitress at Chilli’s – having met her years earlier.
The pair married in 2011 and welcomed two children years later.
He lived quietly as a war hero until Trump entered the political world. Then, he became an activist.
In December 2018, he launched the GoFundMe, saying at the time he’d grown sick of ‘too many illegals . . . taking advantage of the United States taxpayers’ and the ‘political games from both parties’.
The pair often take their boat to Trump flotillas. Above, an image Brian shared recently on social media
It took off on an unprecedented scale, collecting $20million.
It propelled Kolfage into the sphere of media and politics. He frequently tweets in support of the president and against the liberal left, trashes COVID-19 as the ‘biggest scam the world has ever seen’ and fires back at anyone who questions the progress of his wall.
The wall that his fund was paying for is not the same one the government is building and the president has distanced himself from Kolfage’s efforts.
It hasn’t stopped him from pushing ahead with it, even as people questioned where the money was going last May, when there had been seemingly little progress.
Kolfage came under fire for buying a $600,000 boat that he insisted he purchased before he ever launched the fundraising account.
It’s unclear if it’s the same boat prosecutors referred to in their indictment, that he was making payments on.
When they aren’t enjoying that boat, the pair are visiting the wall with their children, often flying privately.
They are also flown around by Carrington, a charity that builds homes for veterans.
On TikTok, Ashley posts frequently from their home in a bikini, for her more than 300,000 followers.
In recent videos, she is seen dancing on a table for her husband while he sits quietly. He rarely appears in the videos.
She did not immediately return DailyMail.com’s inquiries on Thursday morning.