China News Agency, New York, August 20. Stephen Bannon, former adviser to US President Trump, was sued by the New York prosecutors along with three other people on the 20th for allegedly defrauding donations from the southern border wall. The defendants such as Bannon have been arrested.
The New York Times reported that the four defendants including Bannon were suspected of embezzling part of the funds raised by the "We Build the Wall" organization for personal use. In addition to Bannon, the other three defendants are Brian Kolfage, a U.S. Air Force veteran and founder of the "We Build the Wall" organization; Andrew Badolato, Owner of a financial company, has a cooperative relationship with Bannon for more than ten years; Timothy Shea, a resident of Bunker Rock, Colorado.
CNN reported that the “We Build the Wall” organization claimed that all proceeds from the fundraising would be used to build the wall along the US-Mexico border, but the prosecutors accused Bannon and others of embezzling huge sums of money for private use. According to the prosecution’s indictment, the “We Build the Wall” organization has raised more than $25 million in less than two years. Colfach himself embezzled more than 350,000 US dollars for personal use. Bannon used his own non-profit organization to receive more than $1 million from "We Build the Wall", of which hundreds of thousands of dollars were used by him for personal expenses, and part of the money was secretly transferred to Colfach . In order to cover up the misappropriation of donations, Badolato and Shay used methods such as forging invoices and entering into false donation agreements to transfer money to Colfach through channels such as non-profit organizations and shell companies.
Fox News said that Bannon and other four defendants were charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit electronic money transfer fraud and conspiracy to launder money, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison. CNN said that Bannon and other defendants will appear in court for the first time later on the 20th, and Bannon’s lawyer has not yet responded.
Bannon was the head of Trump's presidential campaign, and later was the chief strategist of the White House. He left the White House in August 2017. In early 2018, Trump issued a statement criticizing Bannon for "losing his mind" when he left office, saying that Bannon "has nothing to do with himself or his presidency."
The New York Times said the White House spokesperson declined to comment on the prosecution of Bannon and others. (Finish)