STEVE Bannon has been arrested after allegations of fraud relating to an online fundraising scheme, the US Justice Department said on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump’s ex-political adviser was detained on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of a project to raise money to support the building of a wall along the United States’ border with Mexico.
Bannon and three of his associates — Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, and Timothy Shea — were indicted by investigators in New York after federal prosecutors alleged that the scheme garnered “more than $25 million (€21 million) to build a wall along the southern border of the United States.”
The project “orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors,” the prosecutors added.
The indictment alleges Bannon pocketed over $1 million, despite promising donors that 100% of the money raised would be used to fund the construction of Trump’s much-vaunted plan.
Kolfage, who founded the project, siphoned $350,000, according to the indictment.
The
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