Steve Bannon’s ‘We Build the Wall’ Codefendants Plead Guilty

(Bloomberg) -- Two of Steve Bannon’s former codefendants accused of misusing donations intended to fund a wall with Mexico pleaded guilty to crimes that could land them behind bars for years.

Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato told a judge in Manhattan Thursday that they used money given to the non-profit Build the Wall Inc. for personal expenses despite telling donors that every cent would be used to fund a border wall. Bannon, a one-time strategist to former President Donald Trump, was pardoned on the last day of Trump’s term in office in January 2021 and is no longer involved in the case.

“I knowingly and willfully conspired to receive money from the donations” despite telling the public that all the money would go to building a wall, Kolfage, a disabled Air Force veteran who was the public face of the wall-building effort, said, reading from a statement to U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres. “I know that what I was doing was wrong and a crime.” 

A fourth man charged in the case, Timothy Shea, last month reached an agreement in principle to plead guilty, but then decided to go forward to trial.

Bannon was the highest-profile of the four defendants charged with defrauding people who gave $25 million to We Build the Wall. Prosecutors say $1 million of the money was used for travel and personal luxuries, including a Range Rover for Bannon.

The defendants claimed the prosecution was politically motivated and, initially, all of them denied wrongdoing. 

According to the government, the men told donors that “100% of the funds raised” for We Build the Wall would be used for construction but then began devising ways to divert funds for their own use. The men overpaid contractors and received kickbacks, routing some of the money through a shell company, according to prosecutors.

The men were charged in August 2020. Kolfage was additionally charged, in May 2021, with tax fraud and filing a false return. Kolfage, of Miramar Beach, Florida, served in the Air Force in Iraq in 2004 when he lost both legs and his right hand during a rocket attack.

Kolfage pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy, wire fraud and filing false tax returns. Torres told him the maximum sentence for all the counts is 46 years in prison. Badolato pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy, which is punishable by as long as 20 years. 

Both men are likely to get much less than the maximum terms when they’re sentenced. Federal guidelines call for Kolfage to get up to 5 1/4 years; Badolato as much as 4 1/4 years, according to plea agreements between prosecutors and the two men. Kolfage has agreed to forfeit $17.9 million tied to the scheme. Badolato will forfeit $1.4 million. Both men also face the possibility of fines totalling tens of thousands of dollars.

We Build the Wall funded about five miles (eight kilometers) of border fencing in two different locations in Texas and New Mexico.

Shea was the chief executive officer of a company that sold a Trump-themed beverage called Winning Energy, which purports to contain “ultra-hydrating liberal tears.” 

Badolato is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist who wrote for Bannon’s right-wing news outlet Breitbart News and earned producer credits on Bannon documentaries.

“I knew this was wrong and I’m terribly, terribly sorry for what I did, and I humbly beg the court for mercy,” Badolato told the judge at the hearing.

The case is U.S. v. Kolfage, 20-cr-00412, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.