Steve Bannon indicted in southern border wall crowdfunding scheme
Crowdfunding campaign grift about a southern border wall financing scheme of $25 million has now generated an indictment of Steve Bannon and others. SDNY is in charge. Wire fraud and money laundering are among the counts.
Sidebar: Steve Bannon arrested by US Postal Service Agents aboard Miles (Guo) Kwok’s yacht.
Prosecutors allege Steve Bannon and his three associates routed payments from the wall campaign through a non-profit and another shell company and disguised them with fake invoices and sham vendor arrangements to help keep their personal pay secret.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) August 20, 2020
We Build the Wall is an organization raising donations to build private sections of the wall along the Mexico–U.S. border. It started as a GoFundMe campaign by United States Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage in December 2018.[1] However, Kolfage later announced the formation of a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization in January 2019.[2]
Its advisory board includes politicians and activists with a hard-line stance on illegal immigration, including Senate candidate Kris Kobach,[3] ex-Congressman Tom Tancredo[4] and Trump advisor Stephen K. Bannon,[5] who is chairman of the board.[6] On December 3, 2019, a Hidalgo County judge ordered the group to temporarily halt all construction due to its plans to build adjacent to the Rio Grande, which a lawyer for the National Butterfly Center argued would create a flooding risk. On January 9, 2020 a federal judge lifted the injunction which allowed construction to resume.
Cartoon pic.twitter.com/Tg3TvCRXG1
— Bill Bramhall (@BillBramhall) August 20, 2020
In other news from Manhattan:
Breaking: A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from Trump that sought to block Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance's subpoena for his financial records.https://t.co/32f1GoCmeE
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 20, 2020
“I am your president of law and order!”
~ Trump https://t.co/fKrrFfaCqs— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) August 20, 2020
