DIVERTED FUNDS

‘We Build the Wall’ Co-Founder Indicted for Tax Fraud

Prosecutors say Brian Kolfage took hundreds of thousands of dollars from Trump wall donors and put them in his own bank account.

Brian Kolfage, a disabled veteran who made headlines for raising $25 million along with Steve Bannon for former President Donald Trump’s border wall as part of the “We Build the Wall” crowdfunding campaign is now facing new tax fraud charges. Federal prosecutors say Kolfage, who lost both legs and his right hand in a rocket attack in Iraq while serving in the Air Force, received more than $350,000 in funds that donors thought would go toward constructing a wall and deposited it right into his personal bank account. In August, a jury charged Bannon, Kolfage, and others with defrauding donors to their private wall-building campaign, which Kolfage has pleaded not guilty to. The newest indictment alleges that Kolfage underreported his own income on his 2019 return tax return by the hundreds of thousands of dollars he received from “We Build the Wall” donors. If found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison.