The co-founder of a fundraising group linked to Steve Bannon that promised to help Donald Trump construct a wall along the southern US border was sentenced to four years and three months in prison on Wednesday for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors. Brian Kolfage, a decorated Air Force veteran who lost both of his legs and an arm in the Iraq War, previously pleaded guilty for his role in siphoning donations from the We Build the Wall campaign, the AP reports. A co-defendant, financier Andrew Badolato, was also sentenced to three years for aiding the effort. He had also pleaded guilty. A third 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 along with the other men, but Trump pardoned him during his final hours in office. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought new state charges against Bannon last year; he is awaiting trial. Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses. Bannon has called the case "nonsense." Kolfage, Badolato, and Shea were not 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 public face of the effort as it raised more than $25 million from donors across the country. He repeatedly assured the 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 creating a nonprofit, We Build the Wall, Inc. The four defendants then took steps to funnel the money to themselves for personal gain, prosecutors said.
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Kolfage, 41, told Judge Analisa Torres that he was "remorseful, disgusted, humiliated." He said he had not anticipated the scale of donations that would flood in for the cause and soon found himself drifting away from his initial goal, which he said was "putting a spotlight on the country’s broken immigration system." "I made a promise not to personally benefit and I broke that promise," he said. Kolfage received more 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.
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