Stephen K. Bannon was arrested Thursday morning and charged with defrauding donors to a private fund to build part of the border wall.
Bannon was arrested on board a $35 million, 150-foot yacht off the coast of Westbrook, Connecticut. Federal postal inspectors working together with the U.S. Coast Guard boarded the boat, with belonged to an exiled Chinese tycoon.
Bannon, 66, was charged in connection with a fundraising group called We Build the Wall, headed by a wounded Air Force veteran who lost his legs and is confined to a wheelchair.
According to the criminal indictment, Bannon conspired with the wounded Air Force veteran and a venture capitalist to cheat hundreds of thousands of donors by falsely promising to build a new section of border wall.
Prosecutors say Bannon siphoned off $1 million to pay his personal expenses.
Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said Bannon and his three co-conspirators defrauded investors by telling them that “all of that money would be spent on construction.”
Bannon, President Trump’s former adviser during the 2016 presidential campaign, was banned from the White House in 2017.
Bannon was unceremoniously fired on Aug. 18, 2017 after saying he believed Donald Trump Jr.’s 2016 meeting with Russian operatives in Trump Tower was “unpatriotic” and “treasonous”.
“Steve left the White House almost three years ago, and left on bad terms by burning down the kids so that is always there,” an insider told the NY Post. “Blowing up the kids is never good.”
