How Steve Bannon’s
Alleged ‘We Build the
Wall’ Scam Worked
Vice,
by
Matthew Gault
&
Greg Walters
Original Article
Posted By: StormCnter,
8/20/2020 1:08:06 PM
Federal prosecutors in New York charged Steven Bannon and three others with conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering Thursday. At the center of the charges is We Build the Wall, a crowdfunded organization that promised to do what Bannon said Trump couldn’t: build a privately funded wall along America’s border with Mexico.
Bannon and his alleged co-conspirators built some short sections of wall in New Mexico and Texas, but prosecutors say they they also skimmed millions from the donations.(Snip)Prosecutors allege Bannon raked in $1 million, and that one of his co-conspirators splashed out vast sums on high living,
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Jerseyden 8/20/2020 1:17:45 PM (No. 515730)
Maybe they should have called it the Clinton/Bannon wall. That way they could have kept 99.5 pct of the donations.
46 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
DVC 8/20/2020 1:29:39 PM (No. 515740)
Another hit job like the one on Trump.
Crooked fed prosecutors.
52 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
bighambone 8/20/2020 1:31:29 PM (No. 515743)
Well all this coming on the morning before Joe Biden gives his acceptance speech at the Democrat National Convention was probably timed so that Biden, in his speech could project false guilt on President Trump. Tonight we will see if that is a good bet, especially coming from the corrupt Biden.
Why would the Democrat run US Attorney’s office in New York City have jurisdiction to be investigating anything got to do with the Mexican Border you have to ask? Especially with all the ongoing corruption going on in New York City?
44 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
pros7767 8/20/2020 1:38:08 PM (No. 515747)
Sorry. Not buying it! Steve Bannon is way to smart for that!
They're worried about the success of his podcast, Warroom.
56 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
starboard 8/20/2020 1:48:01 PM (No. 515756)
It's hard think that Bannon did this. Is he that gullible to think that the Chinese have not been following. He's literally at war with the CCP? The Chinese Comunist Party is behind anything that has Trump's name attached to it...especially Steve Bannon. Brian Kolfage is a triple amputee which I find interesting. This all sounds so amateurish. The word alleged is used throughout. I hope it blows up in the face of the NYSD. Anyone who plays these games in this day and age and is a conservative/Republican will be caught and prosecuted.
30 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 8/20/2020 2:06:18 PM (No. 515777)
Talk is cheap. Lets see the proof. I doubt there is any.
34 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
greyseal 8/20/2020 2:07:46 PM (No. 515779)
I'm no apologist for Bannon - he's articulate enough to handle his own defense. But the timing and the almost immediate release of news and opinion articles smells like something coordinated and cooked up. Given that he hasn't been associated with PDJT for a while, I agree that this seems like something timed to slime the president on the eve of Slo Joe's anointing to give the Dem's more talking points. If true, then they should all do the perp walk but I'd counsel that we wait for the evidence and the trial.
greyseal
41 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
DCGIRL 8/20/2020 2:11:22 PM (No. 515782)
Something is not right. I'm having a hard time buying this. I'm with #8. It's the timing and something is telling me that Steve Bannon would not be that stupid. Let's wait for the evidence, if any.
40 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Vaquero45 8/20/2020 2:26:07 PM (No. 515791)
This doesn’t pass the smell test. None of this took place in New York; why were charges brought by the U.S. Attorney there? It seems as though anytime they have no hard evidence that a crime was committed, the defendant is always charged with “conspiracy to commit” this or that. I have a feeling this will all fall apart by election day, as soon as a defense is mounted and the SDNY prosecutors realize it isn’t working. The timing is REALLY suspect.
33 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
chillijilli 8/20/2020 2:32:48 PM (No. 515798)
About the former U.S. Attorney's remark that “The strength of wire fraud charges are that an electronic paper trail of evidence can be used to prove the case.”
I certainly hope Bannon testifies that any "snafus" have been "wiped clean, like, with a cloth"---a tried and true successful legal maneuver recommended by the World's Smartest Woman.
19 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
HPmatt 8/20/2020 2:36:34 PM (No. 515803)
But Clinton Foundation gets a pass from same US Attorney office.
Yeah....sure...
37 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
RedWhite&Blue2 8/20/2020 2:42:45 PM (No. 515806)
Beware the southern district of new York
Rigged
Corrupt
Attack dogs
Hit jobs
Democrat funded
34 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
NYbob 8/20/2020 2:52:35 PM (No. 515812)
Remember when Joe Walsh (I think that was his name) shamed, or tried to shame Joe McCarthy with the 'have you no shame,' line. A PR moment that has been milked for half a century.
My question for the NYSD is, 'with the blatant, intentional, murder of nursing home patients using infected Wuhan virus carriers, where is your outrage and prosecution of the Thug cuomo? Have you no shame, NYSD?' Then the right could trot that out for 50+ years. An overzealous show-boater who had justified reason vs a RICO conspiracy by the media and corrupt NY lawyers and judges to cover up thousands of MURDERS!
15 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
john56 8/20/2020 3:09:15 PM (No. 515818)
Stinks to high heaven. SDNY lawyers are as deep state as they come. Maybe it was Comey's daughter who pulled this stunt. When Pres Trump wins a second term, he needs to insist on the resignation of all US Attorneys (some can be reappointed) and ask each of them to request all their attorneys also submit their resignations as well.
And yet, the Clinton Foundation launders more money than the mob. And Mrs. DiBlasio has her $2mm private staff as "First -whatever- of New York." As has been said, in the Halls of Justice, the only justice is in the halls.
19 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
LadyVet 8/20/2020 3:18:05 PM (No. 515821)
I never thought the idea of crowd sourced funding for a privately built wall was one that made sense from a practical standpoint. You would need right-of-ways, for one thing, so you would need some kind of government authority for that. I will wait for more info, knowing that this came out of the Southern Dist of NY and is likely to be political. If they were interested in wire fraud and criminality, they would be so far into Clinton Foundation prosecutions that they would not have time for a $100,000 here and there.
13 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 8/20/2020 3:25:25 PM (No. 515826)
Innocent until proven guilty. Given how politicized prosecutors are these days, I wouldn't rule out persecution because of his association with Trump. Time will tell.
15 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Right Time 8/20/2020 3:26:49 PM (No. 515829)
Should have used the "Steve Bannon Global Initiative" or the "Bannon Foundation", like Bill & Hill did,
They managed to fool the same US Attorneys with that scam for over 12 years
16 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
smokincol 8/20/2020 3:37:19 PM (No. 515841)
guess they (the communists aka democrat party) will never stop piling on and will continue to try to make our President's life as uncomfortable as possible. they still haven't figured out that his deepest feeling is: they don't matter and he will keep on with his agenda no matter what they throw at him. bet that if they had hunter biden in their midst this would have been a non-issue.
9 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
EQKimball 8/20/2020 4:02:39 PM (No. 515860)
Bannon too smart to get caught? There was a time when Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, Barry Minkow, Bernie Madoff, Joe Hunt and Jack Abramoff (among just a few former felons) were all too smart to get caught. Bannon was a basically a loner. Loners (think E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy) are generally terrible at putting together an A-team.
8 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
bighambone 8/20/2020 4:07:19 PM (No. 515862)
It’s kind of funny that Steve Bannon was just indicted and was arrested this morning, and yet this Vice website who most people never heard of on this site obtained and have already reported the entire prosecutors side of the story. This all coming on the same day that Joseph Biden is scheduled to give his big speech at the Democrat National Convention. You would have to be a moron not to figure out that this was not a big time anti-Trump political move by Democrat prosecutors in New York City.
17 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 8/20/2020 4:19:29 PM (No. 515873)
Please remember that Steve Bannon managed the Biosphere venture in Arizona into bankruptcy. I never trust the SDNY, but I also don't trust Bannon.
What's truly sad is when one of our very deserving veterans gets corrupted by a couple of hucksters.
5 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
davew 8/20/2020 4:24:22 PM (No. 515879)
Small portions of the wall went up, but the indictment alleged that more than a million dollars went into the pockets of Kolfage, Bannon, Badolato, and the fourth co-conspirator, Timothy Shea.
So the people that managed and promoted the site paid themselves less than $250K and Kolfage, a veteran and triple amputee was paid $350K for his efforts. This doesn't seem like much of a scam especially since the donors were informed all along the way of how the funds were being used. The typical salary for the heads of major non-profits like the Red Cross is well into 8 figures. The web site clearly indicates that there will be additional employee and legal expenses to defend the site and promote it in the media. If Bannon takes a trip or sponsors a public forum on the project it could easily cost $30-$50K a pop.
Indictments from the grand jury in SDNY are pretty easy to get these days if the defendants are Trump supporters. I still want to hear the other side of the story.
19 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
earlybird 8/20/2020 4:24:46 PM (No. 515881)
Vice is a left-biased site.
15 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
TJ54 8/20/2020 4:46:37 PM (No. 515899)
Amazing how fast Republicans can get indicted
16 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 8/20/2020 4:47:22 PM (No. 515901)
On their website you can see what has been built and it IS impressive. I recommend all take a look. Interestingly, the Donations have been stopped, but this is what is right below that area:
-----------------
About We Build the Wall, Inc.
We Build the Wall Inc. is a Florida non-profit tax-exempt advocacy organization under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions or gifts to We Build the Wall are not tax deductible for IRS purposes. Not paid for at taxpayer expense. WeBuildtheWall, Inc.
------------
I need a lawyer to determine the indemnification value of the above statement.
4 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
earlybird 8/20/2020 5:39:48 PM (No. 515928)
Lefty Vice is not a really classy place to go for news. Here’s what New York Magazine had to say about it a couple of years ago:
Vice was founded in 1994 when Suroosh Alvi, Gavin McInnes, and Smith used money from a government welfare program to start a magazine in Montreal that was funny, hip, and off-color in a way that hasn’t always aged well — “The Vice Guide to Shagging Muslims” — but offered an outlet for young people who found mainstream culture lame.
Just the place for honest articles and real news, right?
Wrong.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/06/inside-vice-media-shane-smith.html
6 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
GoodDeal 8/20/2020 6:47:04 PM (No. 515971)
Obviously the should have called Marty Byrd.
2 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
Gnana1 8/20/2020 6:54:18 PM (No. 515979)
I have read this piece of trash. I didn't realize I was not familiar with "vice". Vice is a far left fake news bunch. This is a crap piece. Surprised Lucianne.
5 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
Aria 8/20/2020 7:02:24 PM (No. 515986)
I gave money to this - it was a DONATION and I didn't expect to see any of it back nor did I expect an accounting. I'm just glad to have been able to make a statement about how we needed the wall.
Hillary's charity spends almost all the money on themselves and nothing. But these guys are actually building a wall.
Giant Dept of INJUSTICE hit job.
8 people like this.
Reply 30 - Posted by:
DVC 8/20/2020 7:30:11 PM (No. 516001)
Note the "alleged"...they know they are push lies and don't want to be sued and go out of business.
Fake News.
2 people like this.
Reply 31 - Posted by:
DVC 8/20/2020 7:40:44 PM (No. 516014)
#22, very unfair characterization of Bannon's very limited work, after Biosphere had essentially already totally failed.
He was brought in as an investment banker to try to salvage an unsalvageable disaster, which was then basically sabotaged by the team.
Like blaming a salvage crew for failing to save a sinking ship that proved to beyond salvage.
5 people like this.
Reply 32 - Posted by:
cold porridge 8/20/2020 11:17:23 PM (No. 516117)
We have known about the Clinton Foundation laundering money for years, yet not one thing done about it. Theirs was a lot bigger also. Chelsea's wedding and Haiti to name only two.
3 people like this.
Reply 33 - Posted by:
pros7767 8/21/2020 12:06:38 AM (No. 516137)
Just as a reminder #22, the veteran Brian Kolfage started the Go Fund Me page before Stave Bannon jumped on board. He's also been very busy with his Warroom podcasts.
Sorry, not buying any of this !It's the SDNY!
4 people like this.
Reply 34 - Posted by:
watashiyo 8/21/2020 5:55:09 AM (No. 516219)
He is Guilty until proven Innocent! And that's the Democrat's way.
0 people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "StormCnter"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)