2 FL Men Sentenced In ‘We Build The Wall’ Fundraising Scheme: DOJ

FLORIDA — Two Florida men were sentenced Wednesday in New York for their roles in a fundraising scheme that claimed to raise money to help President Donald Trump build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The fundraising group for the campaign known as “We Build the Wall” was linked to former Trump aide, Steve Bannon, who initially faced federal fraud charges but was pardoned by the president during his final hours in office, clearing the indictment.

Brian Kolfage, 41, of Miramar Beach and Andrew Badolato, 58, of Cocoa previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. Kolfage also pleaded guilty to tax and wire fraud.

Kolfage was sentenced to 51 months in prison, while Badolato was sentenced to 36 months.

In addition to prison time, Kolfage was sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to forfeit more than $17.8 million and pay more than $2.8 million in restitution.

Badolato was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit more than $1.4 million and pay more than $1.4 million.

Both defendants played roles in the “scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign known as ‘We Build the Wall’ by soliciting donations using false statements and then stealing the resulting donations,” the DOJ said.

Kolfage is a decorated Air Force veteran who lost both of his legs and an arm in the Iraq War.

Badolato, a financier and graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School in Sarasota, was a longtime resident of Sarasota County, according to the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

“Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato abused the trust of donors to ‘We Build the Wall’ and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to line their own pockets,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. “The defendants have now been held accountable for their criminal conduct.”

A third defendant, Timothy Shea, 52, of Castle Rock, Colorado, was convicted after trial of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and obstruction of justice, the DOJ said. His sentencing is scheduled for June 13.

Badolato, Kolfage, Shea and others orchestrated the scheme starting in December 2018. The “We Build the Wall” campaign raised more than $25 million.

To elicit donations, Kolfage falsely assured donors that he would “not take a penny in salary or compensation” and that “100 (percent) of the funds raised…will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose.”

These promises “were lies,” the agency said. They used “fake invoices and sham contracts” to route donations “through entities and bank accounts that they controlled.”

Kolfage, alone, took more than $350,000 in donor funds intended for ‘We Build the Wall.’”

“This was no ordinary financial fraud,” because when victims donated to the campaign, “they were expressing their views about a political issue that was important to them,” Judge Analisa Torres who presided over the case said.

Noting that the offense cast doubt on the efficacy of political involvement and that the scheme would “undoubtedly have a chilling effect” on political donations, she said that “the fraud perpetrated by Mr. Kolfage and Mr. Badolato went well beyond defrauding individual donors. They hurt us all.”

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.