Steve Banon has pleaded “not guilty” in the alleged border wall fundraising Scheme

Steve Banon who is a former White House chief strategist was arrested on Friday, as he was charged for defrauding thousands of people who donated through his fundraising campaign “We Build the Wall.”

According to NBC, during a court hearing on Thursday, Banon pleaded not guilty and he was expected to be released. He would be getting a $5 million bond which is secured by $1.75 million in cash or property which he has to post by September 3.

Banon is not allowed to make use of private jets or yachts, and he is also mandated to submit his passport, with his travel being limited to areas around New York, Washington D.C, and Connecticut.

He was not the only one, He with three of his associates were indicted in a federal investigation in the Southern District of New York. They were alleged to have defrauded those who made donations, as more than $25 million to build a wall along the southern border of the United States, was raised but some of the funds donated were used for their personal gains.

The other three who were indicted are, Brian Kolfage, a disabled Iraq war veteran, Timothy Shea, a 49-year-old from Colorado who was accused of owning a shell company, and Andrew Badolato, who according to his website was a contributor to Breitbart News, the conservative publication Bannon used to run. 

The original idea behind the campaign which drew support from people who made donations was to help raise money that would assist President Donald Trump in fulfilling his campaign promise that would have him build a border wall.

From the indictment, it said the defendants “collectively received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donor funds from ‘We Build the Wall,’ which they each used in a manner inconsistent with the organization’s public representations.”

The acting U.S Attorney, Audrey Strauss said in a statement “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… 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. We thank the USPIS for their partnership in investigating this case, and we remain dedicated to rooting out and prosecuting fraud wherever we find it.”

The United States Postal Inspection Service assisted in the investigation that has been made so far. In 2018, a crowdfunding campaign to build the wall was launched on GoFundMe was by Brian Kolfage. There was a good response from people as his plans trended and millions of dollars were raised from thousands of people who made donations.

With all that was happening, GoFundMe threatened to put the campaign on hold, except he, “identified a legitimate non-profit organization into which those funds could be transferred,” this was according to the indictment.

Before his campaign to crowdfund the border wall, Kolfage had been linked with some groups and blogs, one of which was taken down by Facebook for using fake accounts to boost website traffic. For some of the sites, they dwelt more on putting out conspiracy theories and racist content.

For Badolato, he noted that he has been an “infrequent freelance contributor in the past to Breitbart News,” Breitbart News is a conservative news outlet that used to be run by Bannon.

According to an NBC TV station in Colorado, Shea is married to Amanda, who is the group’s secretary. She revealed to the station that she and her husband set up a P.O. Box so those who want to make donations can send their checks. She also insisted that the checks were being made to Kolfage.

Kris Kobach who is a member of the “We Build the Wall” team, once told New York Times that President Trump gave his blessing towards the project. Though he is a member of the team, he was not added to the indictment.

Kayleigh McEnany, the White House secretary has revealed that President Trump had no involvement in the project. “President Trump has not been involved with Steve Bannon since the campaign and the early part of the Administration, and he does not know the people involved with this project.” She said in a statement.