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Bannon was ‘architect’ of defrauding scheme: US officials

Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon departs the United States District Court House on the first day of jury selection in his trial for contempt of Congress, in Washington, DC, on July 18, 2022. (AFP photo)

US officials said Steve Bannon, the onetime top advisor to former US President Donald Trump, was the “architect” of a scheme to defraud donors who gave money to construct a wall on the United States-Mexico border.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) told reporters on Thursday that Bannon and the organization We Build the Wall Inc. were indicted for a fundraising scheme that took in over $15 million from thousands of people across the US based on false pretenses.

He said Bannon promised that all donations to the organization would go toward building a wall on the country’s southern border and would go to paying the salary of the group’s president, Brian Kolfage.

Bragg pointed out that the group’s fundraisers repeatedly used the phrase “not a penny” in pleading for donations through media appearances, emails, and social media posts.

But he said the president of the organization received a salary of more than $250,000 that was funded by donations, and some $140,000 of it was laundered by Bannon. Bannon was alleged to use some funds to pay for personal expenses.  

Bannon has pleaded not guilty to numerous new charges levied against him by officials.

Bannon, 68, turned himself into law enforcement authorities at Manhattan Criminal Court for arraignment on Thursday.

The arraignment comes more than two years after Bannon was arrested on federal charges that he and three other men defrauded donors who gave $25 million or more to fund the We Build the Wall campaign. That campaign supported the intention of then-President Trump to build a wall along the southern border of the United States.

Bannon, who had been pardoned of previous charges by Trump on his last night as president before leaving office in January 2021, has been criminally charged by the New York prosecutors with a scheme to fraudulently funnel and obscure salary payments to the CEO of a non-profit fundraising effort to build a wall on the US border with Mexico.

Bragg said Bannon directed the organization to transfer tens of thousands of dollars at a time to a nonprofit company throughout 2019. Prosecutors alleged the company then paid Kolfage’s salary, which obscured the source of the funds.

Bragg said Bannon received a pardon from Trump in January 2021 for federal charges he faced in relation to the fundraising scheme.

“We then began investigating and determined that Mr. Bannon must be held accountable in this jurisdiction, the jurisdiction of New York State, for his conduct as the architect of this scheme, which impacted hundreds of Manhattan residents,” he said.

Bannon, who has pleaded not guilty to the border wall scam charges, was ordered to surrender his passports to authorities.


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