RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A former White House advisor to Donald Trump and one of the leading gurus of the current right-wing – who also provided informal advice to Federal Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro and supported Jair Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign in 2018 – Steve Bannon was arrested yesterday on fraud charges.
The New York City District Attorney indicted Bannon and three others – Andrew Badolato, Brian Kolfage, and Timothy Shea – for defrauding donors in the “We Build The Wall” online fundraising scheme.
The stated purpose of the campaign – which has raised over US$25 million – was to raise money to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, but the defendants are alleged to have made personal use of the funds.
According to the indictment, Bannon pledged that 100 percent of the donated funds would be used for the project, but the defendants collectively used hundreds of thousands of dollars in a manner inconsistent with the organization’s public representations.
“They defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors by capitalizing on their interest in financing the building of the border wall and on the misguided pretext that the funds would be spent on the project,” said District Attorney Audrey Strauss of the Southern District of New York.
The prosecution claims that they forged receipts, among other things, to conceal what was in fact happening.
Asked about the arrest, Trump said he knew nothing about the campaign under investigation. “I don’t know anything about this project,” he said in the Oval Office. “I haven’t had contact with him [Bannon] in a long time,” he added.
Luxury style and personal spending
According to the indictment, Kolfage pocketed US$350,000 to finance his “luxurious lifestyle,” and Bannon diverted US$1 million to a non-profit organization that secretly paid Kolfage “and covered hundreds of thousands of dollars of Bannon’s personal expenses.”
The four detainees were charged with two felonies: bank fraud and conspiracy to launder money. Each offense may lead to a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment.
Bannon attended a hearing before a New York federal judge yesterday for the reading of charges; he was released from custody after posting bail of US$5 million.
Trump and fake news campaign
Steve Bannon was in charge of the conservative Breitbart website, which spreads dubious or even false information, and in the second half of 2016 was chosen to lead the final stretch of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, also accused of promoting fake news. Once the election was won, Bannon moved into a key strategic position in the White House but stayed there for less than a year.
Quarrelsome and blunt, Bannon was the voice of a nationalist conservatism and pressured Trump to keep some of his most controversial campaign pledges, including a ban on the entry of some foreign tourists and the abandonment of the Paris environmental agreement.
But Bannon also clashed with other key advisers, and his confrontational profile sometimes angered the US president. He was removed in August 2017.
Right-wing guru
Bannon is considered one of the leading right-wing gurus in the world. Over the last few years, he has strengthened ties with the European far-right leaders, such as Italian Matteo Salvini and French Marine Le Pen, and has become close to the Bolsonaro family.
He also has connections in the ultra-conservative wing of the American Catholic Church, which opposes Pope Francis.
Relationship with the Bolsonaro family
In October 2018, Bannon publicly declared his support for Jair Bolsonaro in the presidential campaign. “Captain Bolsonaro is a Brazilian patriot and, I believe, a great leader for his country at this historic moment,” he said at the time in a message sent to Reuters. He told the BBC that the then-candidate was “brilliant”.
However, the relationship with the Bolsonaro family started earlier. In August that year, Federal Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro was in the United States and met Bannon. “We talked and found that we share the same perspective of the world,” Eduardo wrote at the time, posting a photo with the American.
In March 2019, Steve Bannon was among the guests at a dinner with President Jair Bolsonaro on his first official visit to the United States as president of Brazil. Another ‘guru’ of the Bolsonaro family, Olavo de Carvalho, was also present. At the time, Bannon said he was “incredibly impressed” with the President’s team.
Source: UOL