[Yahoo Finance] Steve Bannon, a former top strategist for President Trump, was arrested and charged by federal prosecutors with fraud for his role in the "We Build the Wall" crowdfunding effort.
According to federal prosecutors, Bannon and three other men involved in the fundraising project ‐ claiming to collect money to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border ‐ defrauded "hundreds of thousands of donors in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign known as ‘We Build the Wall' that raised more than $25 million."
Bannon specifically received over $1 million from We Build the Wall, at least some of which he used to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses, according to the indictment against him.
Bannon was dismissed from his role as chief strategist at the White House in August 2018, part of a house cleaning under new chief of staff John Kelly. Bannon, a former producer and documentary filmmaker, was executive chairman at Breitbart News Network before Trump tapped him to serve as his campaign CEO in August of 2016.
Bannon and the three other defendants were arrested Thursday morning, prosecutors said.
Steve Bannon, once Donald Trump's most trusted aide, is arrested and due in court accused of being part of massive fraud scheme
He is alleged to have ripped off the We Build The Wall scheme which planned to build a crowd-sourced border wall
They raised money claiming the idea was 'Trump approved' and took in $20 million on GoFundMe before being kicked off the platform, then $5m more
'Non-profit' told hundreds of thousands of donors the people behind it were volunteers but secretly were being paid, feds say
Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York say he helped run scheme which funneled donations to its co-founders
Some of the cash has built sections of wall but millions have not
Bannon received $1 million and kept hundreds of thousands for his personal expenses
Massive amounts of cash went to Brian Kolfage, the triple amputee co-founder who prosecutors say spent it on his lavish lifestyle
Kolfage used the money he received on home renovations, boat payments, an SUV, a golf cart, jewelry, cosmetic surgery, tax and credit card debt
His wife Ashley received cash too and posted on instagram about their lifestyle
Steve Bannon, 'We Build the Wall' organizers arrested, charged with defrauding donors
[FoxNews] Prosecutors say Bannon and the others used the nonprofit and a shell company to hide the payments to Kolfage “by using fake invoices and sham ‘vendor’ arrangements,” as well as other means of keeping the payments quiet. The indictment stated that in order to raise funds, Kolfage and Bannon “repeatedly and falsely” told the public that Kolfage would “not take a penny” in compensation.
#2
The Dems are going after triple-amputee Brian Kolfage? That is pathetic. But then this is not about Bannon, Kolfage, Badolato, or Shea. Its all about Trump. The tip off was "the U.S. Southern District of New York."
#3
Southern District of New York, isn't that the same bunch who want Trump's taxes?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/20/2020 11:36 Comments ||
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#4
Tried a DuckDuckGo search on "Southern District of New York Trump taxes" and I keep coming up with articles about Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. But the DA is not a US Attorney, I don't think. The articles never make it clear. Are they just all in bed together?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/20/2020 11:40 Comments ||
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#5
Abu__ if you'd seen a pic of Letitia, you wouldn't spoil our breakfast like that.
#6
More bull. Did the DA investigate the Clinton foundation? Nope. Did they investigate the less than 10% of the total funds for Hathi going to Hathi? Did they look into Hillary's kid getting $750,000 with no deliverables? Ya, this is a witch hunt for certain.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/20/2020 12:46 Comments ||
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#10
I think doing business out of New York when there are other choices says a lot about the business doers common sense. Whatever cachet a New York business address ever had it's vanishing quickly now.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/20/2020 13:33 Comments ||
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#11
Doesn't make much sense for Bannon to steal money from the Border Wall account. He's already very rich from his Hollywood ventures. He knows he is top 3 on the Democrat's target list.
#13
I read the first seven pages of the indictment; it's hyperbolic to say the least.
If Bannon, et. al. paid themselves regular salaries (W-2), there's nothing wrong with that - it's par for the course to pay employees, isn't it? The worst they appear to have done now is break public pledges, which may or may not be criminally actionable.
Was a guy in the news down here with net worth around $2 million who was a serial shoplifter. Just because someone has already made some serious bank doesn't mean they have their head on straight.
We won't know the deal here until all the facts are heard, and the way the courts are running lately, maybe not even then.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/20/2020 15:50 Comments ||
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#19
I read a few more pages into it - they're asserting fraud was committed by Bannon & Co. (at a general level) of misleading 'investors' by way of changing their mission statement as well as not adhering to written by-laws stating Bannon & Co. said A,B and C were going to happen and allege that D,E and F happened instead.
I know that's not a complete review and I'm just not into the turgidness of finishing the rest of it now, but I think those are the main points so far.
Russian opposition leader Navalny was hospitalized with acute poisoning to hospital in Omsk. Flight Tomsk-Moscow made an emergency landing there. According to his press-secretary Navalny is unconscious, suspects poisoned tea https://t.co/CD9Okxnwmz via @mediazzzona
[Zero Hedge] - The similarities with the housing bubble boom-bust are growing by the day. Not only are stocks at all time highs, to which we can now add record low yields and an all time high gold price as the 10Y real yield has dropped to an unprecedented minus 1% all time low sparking rampant risk-on euphoria among the retail investing community,
Whew! Try doing all that on one breath — betcha can’t, which is one definition of a run-on sentence...
but over the past year there has also been a veritable explosion of "blank check" companies which are shell companies that have no operations but plan to go public with the intention of acquiring or merging with a company with the proceeds of the SPAC's initial public offering.
As we discussed three weeks ago, investment in SPACs usually surges near market peaks, when there is broad consensus among the professional investing community that equities are overvalued as there is now - as a reminder the August Fund Manager Survey from BofA found that a record 78% of Wall Street professionals believe that not only stocks but every other assets is the overvalued on record.
...
Well, to this "blank check" frenzy we can now add the consummate smooth-talking politician and former vice-presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, who according to Dow Jones is also "jumping into the rush on Wall Street toward blank-check acquisition companies."
According to the report, the former Republican House speaker will serve as chairman of a SPAC known as Executive Network Partnering which will seek to raise roughly $300 million in an initial public offering. Here's hoping he does a serious face plant on the IPO. Dude's been in politics all his life; Wall Street's gonna tear him a new asshole.
#1
As they say, there's always a "greater fool." It's not difficult to imagine the sorts of people who would buy this over, say, a solid company that actually *cough* makes something people want to buy.
No thanks, Eddie.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/20/2020 15:42 Comments ||
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#2
Wikipedia:
Special-purpose acquisition company
A special purpose acquisition company, sometimes called blank-check company, is a shell company that has no operations but plans to go public with the intention of acquiring or merging with a company with the proceeds of the SPAC's initial public offering. SPACs allow retail investors to invest in private equity type transactions, particularly leveraged buyouts.
#3
Remember how well special financial vehicles worked out in 2008? I'm a pretty hard core capitalist. I think everyone should have wide latitude in investing their wealth. I also believe it should be equally possible to get killed as it is to make a killing (investing, that is) Anything else is a market distortion and a problem.
We live with the real, not the ideal. But we should innately want better instead of whatever.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/20/2020 16:17 Comments ||
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#6
And while the SPAC bubble burst in 2008 along with the rest of the housing/credit bubble, it has now completely recovered, and as Goldman's David Kostin showed in a recent Weekly Kickstart, SPAC capital raising has soared YTD.
So, if Biden/Harris win, you’d better not be long anything except cash. It’ll be a bloodbath.
#3
Ever wonder if one reason Antifa has support among the locals is that many business owners can't move for some reason or another and they are hoping the arson brigade solves their problem for them.
#4
I'm betting insurance companies' legal departments are looking closely at where their contract verbiage may not cover acts the authorities essentially are sanctioning.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/20/2020 12:39 Comments ||
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#5
"Capitalists owe us!", says the Marxist/Socialists.
At what point does your condemnation turn into action? By allowing unpermited street occupations to continue for years with no consequence, you’ve shown antifa that they can shut down any part of the city and claim it as theirs any time. I tried warning you two years ago. https://t.co/5FmPt3jvmy
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
At what point, even with all the rituals of authentication, does government become illegitimate? When it no longer is willing to provide security in one's person, one's family, and one's property.
#3
/\At what point...? Read The Declaration of Independence again and ponder how many of the grievances of the Founding Fathers echo what the current corrupt ruling class is doing now.
#4
Lots of people whip out the cliche "wild west" with little or no knowledge of the history. The western US was pretty placid compared to the big cities back east.
Population density = more crime.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/20/2020 15:25 Comments ||
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[Townhall] The ratings from the Democratic National Convention’s first night are in and the numbers were not as strong as they were in 2016.
During the 10 p.m. to 11:15 p.m. timeframe, the convention brought in approximately 25 percent fewer viewers than the last convention, Deadline reports citing Nielsen Media Research.
The convention drew 18.7 million viewers in the 10 PM ET to 11:15 PM ET timeframe, when the most networks were carrying the convention proceedings, highlighted by a speech by former First Lady Michelle Obama. That compares to about 25 million who watched ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... in the same time period four years ago. The ratings information is from Nielsen Media and was released by Fox News and CNN.
The figures do not include viewers on other networks or on streaming and social media platforms, as the Democratic National Committee made a push to draw viewers to other feeds. According to TJ Ducklo, front man for Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden ...You're a lyin' dog-faced pony soldier... ’s campaign, 10.2 million watched via digital streams, surpassing the level of four years ago and bringing the total TV and online audience to 28.9 million. (Deadline)
There is a major difference between this year's convention and 2016, of course--the fact that it was a virtual event due to the Wuhan coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... pandemic. But despite having plenty of time to prepare and create a visually appealing package, it was poorly executed and painful to watch what amounted to a series of Zoom calls.
"I get that we're in a pandemic and it can't be like a normal convention but this made a PBS telethon look like New Year's Eve in Times Square," The Hill's media news hound Joe Concha told "Fox & Friends First" on Tuesday. "It was just beyond boring, for lack of a better term, and it just felt too homogenized. There didn't seem to be any authenticity to it.
Concha noted that even anti-Trump voices in the media characterized the convention as: "cringey, sad, slow, phoney, amateur, robotic, boring and painful."
No wonder liberal networks are so worried about the Republican National Convention.
#5
I think the entire first night of the 'Pub convention should be one massive indictment of the Democrat Party. Show them the streets of the major cities, name the Dem politicians involved in each city & state (mayor, DA, Gov, etc.). Show the U-Hauls and Penske moving vans leaving San Francisco and businesses like tesla pulling up roots and going elsewhere. Point out how Cuomo and others murdered thousands in nursing homes. Keep going and just pile on these motherfuckers until they're buried.
#6
The Anitfa/BLM folks are mostly staying away from where the mostly empty convention is being held in Milwaukee.
They did try to get one going in Wauwatosa (fairly conservative city next to Milwaukee) and it didn't go as planned. The local police actually did their jobs.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/20/2020 10:32 Comments ||
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[FoxNews] Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's campaign said it has nothing to do with former Women's March leader Linda Sarsour, after she was seen participating in the Democratic National Convention...
"Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel and a vehement opponent of anti-Semitism his entire life, and he obviously condemns her views and opposes BDS, as does the Democratic platform," Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement, referring to Sarsour. "She has no role in the Biden campaign whatsoever." [haven't seen any reaction from the anti Israel and anti Semitic branch of the Dem party yet but its early]
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/20/2020 00:00 ||
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[9 views]
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#1
Wink, shrug, grin.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/20/2020 1:50 Comments ||
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#2
Yet, there she was.Golly, shazaaaam!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/20/2020 2:56 Comments ||
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#3
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's campaign said Joe must still be hiding in the basement because only his campaign or his wife (Jill) are talking for him.
#7
Obama hated Netanyahu as much as Flynn.
Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright.
Why did Obama give Iran what ever they wanted?
Why did Obama threw Israel under the bus with UNSCR 2334 (at the same time he was plotting against the incoming President)?
AOC!
#8
Even Democrats must understand that the optics are not good...
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/20/2020 11:45 Comments ||
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#9
I mean, the Wookie, Hildebeast, Kamaltoe, AOC...it just keeps getting worse and worse. This is the party of ugly women.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/20/2020 11:47 Comments ||
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#10
these 'ugly women' could actually be quite attractive given the right clothes and make up (except perhaps Hillary)
in fact AOC has the figure of a supermodel
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/20/2020 12:09 Comments ||
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#11
Anti-Semite Linda Sarsour, who supports the Israel-hating BDS movement which boycotts Jewish-owned businesses, says the Democrat Party “is absolutely our party.”
#15
The women in the Democrat Party leadership didn't get where they are by being honest and kind. The biggest part of their ugliness is their dishonesty and viciousness.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/20/2020 15:53 Comments ||
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#16
Some women look better in masks; just sayin'...
[Sun Sentinel] Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony survived a fierce challenge Tuesday from his predecessor Scott Israel
... the clever gentleman who was previously fired for failure to act during the Nikolas Cruz massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, causing the sheriff’s office to lose its accreditation...
in a tough Democratic showdown that featured relentless back-and-forth attacks.
#2
No food or water for the Democrat until the Postal Union allows its workers to collect mail at my mail box in Los Angeles.
As I mentioned in the Opinion section Wednesday the mail box appeared to be full.
I am sure it has not been collected recently.
The mail boxes in LA were removed years ago during Obama years.
Neither Trump nor Dejoy have any leverage over the postal service in California nor in the 9th circus, nor in Portland CHAZ.
[DailyCaller] According to the criminal complaint, Kevin Clinesmith added the words "not a ‘source'" in reference to Page to a CIA liaison's email. Clinesmith shared the altered email with an FBI supervisory intelligence analyst working on the Page investigation.
Clinesmith, 38, said Wednesday that he knowingly altered the email, though he believed at the time the information he put in it was accurate. [which means he thought that the CIA said, 'yes he works for us' when they meant 'no he doesn't work for us']
"At the time I believed the information I was providing in the email was accurate, but I am agreeing that the information I inserted into the email was not already there," Clinesmith said at his plea hearing, which was held before Judge James Boasberg.
Clinesmith served both on the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane team and the special counsel's investigation.
#3
One reliable thing about an American leftist, once you have them dead to rights with no viable escape they all regress into 6 year olds explaining to teacher.
#6
The sentence will tell the story. Going to bet it's a spit in the ocean compared to what they were planning to do to Flynn.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/20/2020 11:23 Comments ||
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#7
/\ Exactly Mike. I'm sure Clinesmith is the designated 'goat' and legal action will drag on and on with the Deep State's hope no one will dig any deeper than Clinesmith and his actions.
Clinesmith is now under the bus, but the FBI and the entire intelligence community are seated comfortably ON the same bus.
Your mention of Mike Flynn is interesting. Perhaps Flynn had 'back channel' knowledge of the FBI's Carter Page project. Flynn was a lifelong Human Intelligence (HUMINT) officer. Might have been more to his removal from DIA and follow-on legal problems than meets the eye.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/20/2020 11:59 Comments ||
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#11
"At the time I believed the information I was providing in the email was accurate, but I am agreeing that the information I inserted into the email was not already there"
"So, you see, I had this true document and all I did was make it more truthy by adding some true words to it..."
Right, and that's called "fraud on the court." At the very least he should lose his bar shingle. It wouldn't have mattered if he added true words, false words, or "For a good time call Hillary."
Posted by: Matt ||
08/20/2020 12:27 Comments ||
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#12
He has plea bargained promising cooperation. If he doesn't roll over on his comrades, throw the book at him
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/20/2020 12:42 Comments ||
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#13
Hope Kevin checked into the 'Clinton Body Count' before starting to talk.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/20/2020 13:43 Comments ||
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#14
I dunno but some have said he will get a wrist slap much like James Wolfe did (virtually no consequences).
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[FoxNews] Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's campaign said it has nothing to do with former Women's March leader Linda Sarsour, after she was seen participating in the Democratic National Convention...
[Sun Sentinel] Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony survived a fierce challenge Tuesday from his predecessor Scott Israel 
