Trump’s former campaign advisor, Bannon arrested and charged with fraud over Mexico wall funds

Developing Just Leadership

Abdul Haqq ibn Omar

Muharram 01, 1442 2020-08-20

Daily News Analysis

by Abdul Haqq ibn Omar

America's fraudsters and criminals. Will Trump be able to avoid prison once he is out of the White House? The entire system is rotten to the core. The US is like a vast criminal syndicate where the biggest crooks get away scot-free.

Steve Bannon, the right-wing media personality of Breitbart News notoriety, credited with crafting Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, has been arrested on fraud charges.

Some would say, what else is new.

Mr Bannon and three others defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors in connection with the “We Build the Wall” campaign, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said today.

The campaign raised $25 million from private donors with the pledge that every penny would be used to build the wall to keep illegal Mexicans and Latinos out of the US.

Bannon received more than $1 million, at least some of which he used to cover personal expenses, the DoJ said.

He appeared in a New York court today and was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Each carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.

His co-conspirators—Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea—were also charged with the same offenses.

Kolfage and Badolato appeared in a court in Florida while Shea appeared in Colorado.

CNN issued a short terse statement saying “Federal prosecutors charged Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump's former campaign adviser, and three others with defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a border wall fundraising campaign. Bannon has been arrested, according to a spokesman for the US attorney’s office. Bannon’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”

During his campaign, Trump had pledged to keep the Mexicans out of the US whom he called rapists, drug dealers and criminals.

Tens of thousands of migrants have since been detained and held in appalling conditions at various makeshift holding pens, literally like animals.

Parents have been separated from children, some of them infants.

Trump does not care for the well-being of children despite protests by many organizations concerned about their plight.

The “We Build the Wall” campaign was launched by Bannon’s close ally Brian Kolfage amid heightened jingoism to keep undesirables out of the US.

They pledged to use all donations to build segments of the border wall and to not take a single penny for personal use.

But as Audrey Strauss, the Acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), pointed out, Bannon, Kolfage, Badolato and Shea had “defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalising on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretence that all of that money would be spent on construction.”

Bannon, Kolfage and their fellow fraudsters had other plans.

They set up non-profit organizations to funnel funds to themselves as well as used sham invoices.

“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,” Ms. Strauss said in her indictment.

So, how did they manage to perpetrate the fraud?

New York Inspector-in-Charge Philip R Bartlett explained that the four created “sham invoices and accounts to launder donations and cover up their crimes, showing no regard for the law or the truth,” the BBC reported.

Bartlett went on: “This case should serve as a warning to other fraudsters that no one is above the law, not even a disabled war veteran or a millionaire political strategist,” he said.

The scheme was launched in December 2018, about 18 months after Trump fired Bannon from his White House job.

Bannon openly boasted that he was the “brains” behind Trump’s successful presidential campaign, much to the chagrin of the narcissist who refuses to acknowledge anybody else’s contribution to his unexpected victory.

Bannon returned to his Breitbart News website where he spoke against some of Trump’s policies but was fired from Breitbart as well.

Undeterred, he launched with Kolfage the “We Build the Wall” fund-raising campaign.

Others joined in this fraudulent scheme.

During the campaign Bannon publicly said, “We’re a volunteer organisation”.

Some volunteer organization!

Bannon’s non-profit organization received more than $1 million and then used “hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bannon’s personal expenses,” the DoJ said.

Kolfage, “We Build the Wall” founder, covertly took $350,000 for his personal use, the statement said.

If Trump is asked about Bannon, he would probably say, “Don’t know him, never met him. Even if I met him somewhere, it must have been in passing. I meet millions of people that love and admire me. That’s why I am the best president America has ever had!”

American politics are rotten to the core. Bannon’s case is less than the tip of the iceberg.

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