By Moon Of Alabama

August 20, 2020 "Information Clearing House" - It is likely that U.S. President Donald Trump will soon says that he hardly knew his former campaign manager and senior advisor Steve Bannon and that he had always suspected that Bannon was a crook.

Leaders Of ‘We Build The Wall’ Online Fundraising Campaign Charged With Defrauding Hundreds Of Thousands Of Donors

Starting in approximately December 2018, BRIAN KOLFAGE, STEPHEN BANNON, ANDREW BADOLATO, and TIMOTHY SHEA, and others, orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors, including donors in the Southern District of New York, in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign ultimately known as “We Build The Wall” that raised more than $25 million to build a wall along the southern border of the United States. In particular, to induce donors to donate to the campaign, KOLFAGE repeatedly and falsely assured the public that he would “not take a penny in salary or compensation” and that “100% of the funds raised ... will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose” because, as BANNON publicly stated, “we’re a volunteer organization.”

Those representations were false.

The four indicted persons who ran the "We Build The Wall" campaign funneled donations into their own pockets:

[STEVE] BANNON, through a non-profit organization under his control (“Non-Profit-1”), received over $1 million from We Build the Wall, at least some of which BANNON used to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in BANNON’s personal expenses.

Bannon and the other three accused persons are now under arrest.

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Interestingly the indictments come from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York which in June was involved in a spat with Trump:

Geoffrey Berman, the powerful U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said late Friday that he had not resigned after Attorney General William Barr said he would be stepping down. Barr sent a letter to Berman on Saturday saying he had asked President Trump to fire Berman, and the president had done so.

"I was surprised and quite disappointed by the press statement you released last night," Barr said in a statement. "Because you have declared that you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so."

Berman's office had investigated some of President Trump's associates, including the president's former personal attorney Michael Cohen.

There were at that time several known cases in the Southern District that involved people somewhat associated with Trump. But it still is not known why exactly Trump intervened in that office.

Could it have been because of the case against Bannon which was not publicly known at that time?

Probably not. Bannon and the others defrauded people who want to build the wall and are thereby on Trump's side. Trump is not probably not stupid enough to intervene in such a case.

Then again ...

The advisory board of We Build The Wall includes several other pro-Trump figures including mercenary salesman Erik Prince.

CBS reports that Bannon was taken into custody by US Postal Inspection Service agents. In the announcement of the indictment Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, explicitly praises the USPIS for its support. In light of the recent dust up over alleged Trump moves against the Postal Service that deserves a chuckle.

Bannon had recently worked with the Chinese crook Guo Wengui to build up a media company. As we noted a year ago:

Miles Kwok aka Guo Wengui is a disgruntled Chinese oligarch. He is one of the men who finances the Hong Kong protests. Here he appears with Steve Bannon Miles Kwok & Mr Bannon: The 5 principles on Hong Kong’s matter (vid).

The Bennon-Guo media venture is also in trouble:

A media company linked to former Trump political adviser Steve Bannon and exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui raised more than $300 million in a private offering this spring that is now being investigated by federal and state authorities, say people familiar with the matter.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. have frozen accounts tied to fundraising for the company, GTV Media Group, some of these people said. Bank of America Corp. also closed an account for GTV Media's parent company shortly after it was opened in recent months, another person with knowledge of the situation said.
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Soon after the fundraising, some investors began pushing for refunds after they said they never received official documentation verifying their investments in GTV Media, among other issues that led them to distrust Mr. Guo.

Mr. Guo, a former property tycoon who is now one of China's most-wanted fugitives, and Mr. Bannon were two of the key people behind GTV Media's launch this spring, according to a company fundraising document and interviews. The document identifies Mr. Bannon as a company director, while Mr. Guo served as the public face for its fundraising. Associates of Mr. Guo are listed as GTV Media executives, while Mr. Guo is described as a company adviser.

The FBI is on the case:

The FBI had been examining Mr. Guo's work with Mr. Bannon even before the private placement this spring. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported last month that FBI agents had been investigating Mr. Guo and the money he used to fund his media efforts in the U.S. for more than six months and that prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn had been involved in the probe.
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Earlier this month, Mr. Guo said in an online video that he had been subpoenaed and that he welcomed authorities' probes. A lawyer for Mr. Guo didn't provide comment on what information the subpoenas were seeking and whether Mr. Guo had complied with them.

A 2017 Vice News clip has some background about Guo, his lies and his luxurious lifestyle in New York.

Together with Bannon Guo ran a strong anti-China campaign. How that was or is related to Trump's anti-China campaign is not yet known.

- "Source" -