U.S. Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, an ex-associate of Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon, leaves his sentencing in Latest York City, U.S., April 26, 2023.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
The co-founder of a fundraising group linked to Steve Bannon that promised to assist Donald Trump construct a wall along the southern U.S. border was sentenced to 4 years and three months in prison on Wednesday for stealing a whole bunch of 1000’s of dollars from donors.
Brian Kolfage, a decorated Air Force veteran who lost each of his legs and an arm within the Iraq War, previously pleaded guilty for his role in siphoning donations from the We Construct the Wall campaign.
A co-defendant, financier Andrew Badolato, was also sentenced to 3 years for aiding the trouble. He had also pleaded guilty. A 3rd man involved in siphoning funds from the wall project, Colorado businessman Tim Shea, won’t be sentenced until June.
Kolfage and Badolato were also ordered to pay $25 million in restitution to the victims.
Absent from the case was Bannon, Trump’s former top political adviser. He was initially arrested aboard a luxury yacht and faced federal fraud charges together with the opposite men, but Trump pardoned him during his final hours in office.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought recent, state charges against Bannon last yr. He’s awaiting trial. Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses. Bannon has called the case “nonsense.”
Kolfage, Badolato and Shea weren’t pardoned by Trump, leaving them to face the prospect of years in prison.
Prosecutors said the scheme was hatched by Kolfage, who served as the general public face of the trouble because it raised greater than $25 million from donors across the country. He repeatedly assured the general public he would “not take a penny” from the campaign.
As money poured into the cause, Kolfage and his partner, Shea, turned to Bannon and Badolato for help making a nonprofit, We Construct the Wall, Inc. The 4 defendants then took steps to funnel the cash to themselves for private gain, prosecutors said.
Kolfage, 41, told Judge Analisa Torres that he was “remorseful, disgusted, humiliated.” He said he had not anticipated the dimensions of donations that might flood in for the cause and shortly found himself drifting away from his initial goal, which he said was “putting a highlight on the country’s broken immigration system.”
“I made a promise to not personally benefited and I broke that promise,” he said.
Torres said the defendants not only cheated their donors but contributed to a “chilling effect on civic participation” by tarnishing the popularity of political fundraising.
“The fraudsters behind We Construct The Wall injured the body politic,” she said.
Kolfage received greater than $350,000 in donor funds, which he spent on personal expenses that included boat payments, a luxury SUV and cosmetic surgery, prosecutors said in a court filing.
Bannon was accused of taking greater than $1 million through a separate nonprofit, then secretly paying a few of it back to Kolfage.
Badolato, 58, and Shea also stole a whole bunch of 1000’s from fundraisers as well, prosecutors said.
As a part of a plea deal, Kolfage and Badolato agreed to not challenge a sentence throughout the agreed-upon range: between 4 to 5 years for Kolfage and three 1/2 to 4 years for Badolato.
An attorney for Kolfage previously argued that his client should avoid prison time given his lack of criminal history and severe disability.
Some sections of a border barrier were built by We Construct the Wall on private lands, however the nonprofit is now defunct.
