Bannon and ‘We Build the Wall’ Charged with Six Felonies, Including Money Laundering, Conspiracy, and Scheme to Defraud

Steve Bannon is learning the hard way the limitations of a presidential pardon, being indicted Thursday in New York for state charges that largely mirror the federal ones for which former President Donald Trump granted him a “Get Out of Jail Free” card related to an alleged scheme involving a project to raise private funds to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“WeBuildTheWall, Inc.,” the corporate entity for the “We Build The Wall” crowdfunding effort, took in roughly $25 million, and Bannon and several of his associates were accused of using the non-profit organization’s funds to personally enrich themselves, allegedly pocketing about $1 million. He was arrested in Aug. 2020, picked up by federal authorities on a luxury yacht owned by Chinese expatriate Guo Wengui.

Trump pardoned Bannon on his last day in office, Jan. 20, 2021, but presidential pardons only apply to federal, not state, charges, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James continued their investigations of Bannon and the WeBuildTheWall. Two of Bannon’s associates, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, did not receive pardons and pled guilty to charges of defrauding donors in April, and a third, Timothy Shea, had a trial end in mistrial in June after the jury deadlocked. A retrial is scheduled for October.

The Washington Post broke the news late Tuesday evening that Bannon would be facing a new indictment under New York law and would surrender to state prosecutors on Thursday.

Bannon reacted with a defiant statement on Wednesday, vowing he was “never going to stop fighting” and adding, “They will have to kill me first,” but did in fact surrender peacefully to authorities on Thursday. Insider’s Laura Italiano captured a short video of Bannon arriving at the Manhattan DA’s office, making “quite the scene” and complaining about being “persecuted” but not actually dying.

Steve Bannon has surrendered at the Manhattan DAs office — quite the scene #SteveBannon pic.twitter.com/nkrSWJmK2Y

— Laura Italiano (@Italiano_Laura) September 8, 2022

“Stop hurting America, you creepy two-bit grifter!” a female protester yelled at Bannon as he entered the building.

The 22-page indictment, embedded below, includes six counts, two for money laundering, three counts of conspiracy, and one count of scheme to defraud, as reported by Law&Crime’s Adam Klasfeld. One key difference from the prior federal indictment is that this state pleading names as a defendant WeBuildTheWall, Inc.; the federal case only charged the individual defendants Bannon, Kolfage, Badolato, and Shea.

The indictment included specific allegations that We Build The Wall “solicited donations and raised money from donors throughout the United States, including several hundred from New York County,” based on “false representations” that all of the money raised would go towards construction of a border wall. In reality, the indictment states, Kolfage was paid a generous salary despite publicly declaring he would not receive one, and funds were transferred to another corporate entity under Bannon’s control in order to conceal the source of the payments to Kolfage.

Kolfage made numerous statements described in the indictment promising not to take a salary, including claiming that he ““will personally not take a penny of compensation from these donations” in a Jan. 11, 2019 update to We Build the Wall’s website that was emailed to supporters; an email to a potential donor on that same date saying “I have no salary or compensation for my work…100% of the funds go only to the border wall construction and our audit committee will oversight the entire thing;” a video posted on Jan. 13, 2019 in which he stated “everyone who donates right now, your money goes towards this wall. 100% of your money goes towards the wall. It’s not going to line someone’s pocket. I’m taking zero dollars of a salary, no compensation. It’s going towards the wall.”

The indictment says Bannon himself made comments claiming all the money raised would go towards building the wall, such as a June 24, 2019 fundraising event where he stated, ““remember, all the money you give goes to building the wall.”

The reality, according to the indictment, is that hundreds of thousands of dollars of We Build the Wall’s funds were transferred to a corporate entity under Bannon’s control and then transferred directly to Kolfage, a corporate entity under Kolfage’s control, or to pay off a credit card bill belonging to Kolfage.

According to a report by Italiano, the original federal indictment had stated that We Build The Wall raised about $25 million and promised to build 300 miles of wall by purchasing the rights to private land along the border, but only about 3 miles of fencing was ultimately constructed.

Overall, Bannon and his associates with We Build The Wall are alleged to have diverted more than $1 million of the non-profit’s donations.

Bragg and James will hold a joint press conference to discuss the indictment at 1:00 pm ET, ahead of Bannon’s arraignment scheduled for 2:15 pm ET. Both released statements prior to the press conference.

“It is a crime to turn a profit by lying to donors, and in New York, you will be held accountable,” Bragg said, accusing Bannon of having “acted as the architect of a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud thousands of donors across the country – including hundreds of Manhattan residents.”

There “cannot be one set of rules for everyday people and another for the wealthy and powerful — we all must play by the same rules and must obey the law,” said James. “Mr. Bannon took advantage of his donors’ political views to secure millions of dollars which he then misappropriated. Mr. Bannon lied to his donors to enrich himself and his friends.”

Bannon’s latest legal troubles come less than two months after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress for his failure to comply with a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

This article has been updated with additional information. 

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