Steve Bannon, former campaign manager and former political adviser to US President Donald Trump, was arrested Thursday on charges of fraud against donors in the fundraising campaign to build the wall with Mexico.
The federal prosecutor’s office has accused Bannon and three other people – Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea – of appropriating the money obtained to build the border wall.
According to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Bannon and the three other defendants “orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors” from the ‘We Build the Wall’ campaign.
Through an ‘online’ crowdfunding campaign they raised more than 25 million dollars of which Kolfage “repeatedly assured that they would not take a penny for their salaries.” Bannon went so far as to publicly say “we are a voluntary organization,” the Prosecutor’s Office recalled, according to NBC.
Shortly after the charges were filed, Bannon has been arrested, according to the US press.
