We Build the Wall

Part 2: Brian Kolfage, Guo Wengui and others

by Dave

In my prior blog, I began with Steve Bannon. I did not explain how We Build the Wall began, and how the others became involved. This second part ties up a few loose ends.

Brian Kolfage is a war hero. He lost both legs and an arm in the Iraqi war, serving in the Air Force.

We Build the Wall founder Kolfage has been sentence to 51 months in prison for his part in the scam. Timothy Shea partnered with Kolfage, and is described as a Colorado business man. He skimmed $350,000. He went to court and got 63 months sentence.

Trump had complained that he couldn’t get funding from Congress to build the wall, so Brian Kolfage thought of a charity to raise one billion dollars to build a wall. It started in December 2018 and was an instant success on GoFundMe, with 9 million dollars raised in the first 3 days. The problem was there was no way to transfer the money to the federal government to help “Trump’s wall.”

Some sections of a border barrier were built by We Build the Wall on private lands, but the nonprofit is now defunct.

Kolfage decided to form a 501(c)4 corporation in January 2019. This is where Andrew Badolato and Steve Bannon join in the effort. Oh, the sweet smell of money. As provided below, Steve Bannon headed the advisory board. Some sections of a border barrier were built by We Build the Wall on private lands, but the nonprofit is now defunct.

Wikipedia Link: We Build the Wall

The Advisory Board is provided in the above link. No one on the Advisory Board has been charged with skimming money from the charity, except Steve Bannon. But this could change as Bannon’s trial date nears. The current Attorney General of Kansas was on the board.

I could not find any biographical information on Andrew Badolato. I suspect his role was less as he received the lowest sentence of 3 years.

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The initial blog had a picture of Steve Bannon, arrested in Aug 2020, and the yacht Lady May owned by billionaire Guo Wengui (AKA Miles Guo, Han Wan Kwok) an exile from China. Lady May is a beautiful 152 ft yacht.

Now the Bannon-Guo connection, from Wikipedia:

G News is a website owned by Guo Media – a company associated with Guo – operating in collaboration with Steve Bannon, a former executive chairman of Breitbart News and former advisor to the Trump administration.[70][71] Guo Media paid Bannon $1 million in exchange for consulting services from August 2018 to August 2019,[72] and Bannon has an office in Guo Media’s headquarters.[15] Both Guo and Bannon are regularly featured in G News videos that criticize the Chinese government.[71] Guo and Bannon later co-founded GTV Media Group in 2020,[73] which operates the Chinese video website GTV.[74]

In August 2020, when Steve Bannon was arrested, Guo responded that the charges were “fabricated” and claimed that they were part of a plan by the Chinese Communist Party to “take Mr. Bannon down” [11]” Sure. See Wikipedia link:

Wikipedia, GTV Media

GTV Media specialized in conspiracy theories and spreading misinformation.

Guo Wengui became rich in China as a result of real estate development in China. His long biography is listed below:

Wikipedia, Guo Wengui

Per Wikipedia:

Guo was arrested on March 15, 2023 in New York by Federal authorities, for conspiracy to defraud his online followers out of more than $1 billion.[83][84] These included $452 million in unregistered offering and $150 million in loans for GTV, in addition to $250 million for membership programmes and $262 million for the Himalaya Exchange cryptocurrency project.[85]

So, as I understand it, it was a cryptocurrency scam.

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Guo is bankrupt. His 152′ boat went up for auction. Herb Chambers, 81 years old, is the new owner. Herb Chambers became rich by working hard, selling cars.

Wikipedia: Herb Chambers

He still works, going to work in his helicopter. So Bannon and Guo are headed for trial, Herb Chambers can be tooling around Dorchester Bay in the Lady May. If he has time.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Steve Bannon and Others: We Build the Wall

by Dave

Steve Bannon is smart. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has a master’s degree in national security from Georgetown University. He has been an investment banker and held high positions in numerous companies.

He developed a strategy to get Trump elected, focusing on very emotional issues likely to get Republicans pumped up enough to vote for Trump. About a third of Americans don’t vote.

One theme was that the elites in Washington don’t care about working families. And of course that illegal Mexicans are taking jobs from good Americans, so we need to build a really high wall. And Trump added a twist, in that it wasn’t going to cost taxpayers a cent as Mexico was going to build it for us. Trump said this repeatedly, with intense conviction.

In addition to being smart, Bannon is corrupt. He is a grifter. Trump fired him as the Chief Strategist in the White House in August 2017. After this, Bannon was involved in many conservative organizations and was even a consultant to President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil and his son.

I have no idea what advice Bannon gave to Bolsonaro, but after losing the Brazilian election on October 31, 2022, he did not concede the election and cast doubt whether the election machines accurately recorded the votes. There was no evidence of faulty election machines, and the federal electoral court on June 30, 2023 barred Bolsonaro from running for president until 2030 for discrediting the election process:

https://apnews.com/article/brazil-bolsonaro-ineligible-court-ruling-vote-99dee0fe4b529019ccbb65c9636a9045

Bannon promoted the “We Build the Wall” movement. The idea was that if Democrats in Congress would not fund Trump’s wall, then Steve Bannon and other Republicans would. A total of 25 million dollars was raised.

It was a scam. Some of the money was used, but the organizers were taking substantial sums for their own personal use. The donors were die-hard conservatives, who would without a second thought, send money to help build the wall. The organization was ripping off Trump’s MAGA supporters.

In August 2020, Steve Bannon was arrested on board the Lady May, owned by Guo Wengui, a billionaire and one of the top 10 on China’s most wanted list. We will get to Guo Wengui in Part 2 of this blog. Also a bit about the Lady May. It is no longer owned by Mr. Wengui.

Based on evidence presented to a grand jury, Bannon and three others were indicted on defrauding donors. The three others are Andrew Badolato, Brian Kolfage and Timothy Shea. Badolato and Kolfage pled guilty and have been sentenced to 36 and 51 months on April 26, 2023. Shea pled not guilty and was sentenced to 63 months in prison on July 25, 2023.

Southern District of New York Colorado Man Sentenced To Prison For “We Build The Wall” Online Fundraising Fraud Scheme, July 25, 2023

Steve Bannon was able to avoid a trial because Trump gave him a pardon on his last day in office. This didn’t work. While charges were dropped in Federal Court, Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg charged Bannon with money laundering, conspiracy and scheming to defraud donors on September 8, 2022.

Prior to his pardon, he was accused of stealing over one million dollars. Per the link below, “if convicted on the top charge, he faces a maximum 5 to 15 years in prison, according to Bragg.”

Politico, Steve Bannon charged with money laundering, conspiracy

Given Shea conviction, there is no chance of a plea bargain. It is expected to go to trial in 2024.

Bannon has been convicted for a failure to appear at the Jan 6 Congressional Hearing on October 21, 2022 and has been sentenced to four months in jail and pay a fine of $6500. He was allowed to be free on bond until the appeals are complete.

The link below gives more details of Steve Bannon. Per the link below, ‘In his memoir, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner recalled having an abrasive relationship with Bannon and two occasions in which Bannon threatened him, including one in which he threatened to ‘break Kushner in half’ after he accused Bannon of leaking to the press.[272][273] Also in his memoir Kushner writes “Bannon single-handedly caused more problems for me than anyone else in my time in Washington. He probably leaked and lied about me more than everyone else combined. He played dirty and dragged me into the mud of the Russia investigation”.’

Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Bannon

So, Donald Trump and Steve Bannon will be in Manhattan to face charges in 2024. Trump is facing criminal charges on the Stormy Daniels Hush Money case and Bannon on the Build the Wall fraud scheme.

What was going through Trump’s head when he pardoned Bannon, knowing he ripped off his followers and leaked lies about his son in law to the press. I can only believe that Bannon had a lot of ammunition to use against Trump.

Part 2 will be shorter, as I will discuss the fall of Guo Wengui, a close associate of Steve Bannon.

Stay tuned,

Dave