Displaying items by tag: fraud charge

Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, has been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit fraud related to We Build the Wall, a fundraising campaign to support the building of a border wall between the US and Mexico. Federal prosecutors allege that Bannon and three others ‘orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors’ in connection with the online crowdfunding campaign that raised more than £19m. Bannon promised that 100% of the money donated would be used for the project, but the defendants allegedly used hundreds of thousands of dollars in a manner inconsistent with the organisation's public representations. The trio faked invoices and sham ‘vendor’ arrangements in a bid to hide what was really happening.