Dates set — again — for trials of local veteran in alleged We Build the Wall scheme

MIRAMAR BEACH — If the dates set currently in federal courts in Florida and New York stand unchanged, Miramar Beach wounded warrior Brian Kolfage could face trial twice within a little more than two months, beginning in March, on separate sets of federal charges that carry possible penalties stretching to decades behind bars.

Kolfage, who lost both legs and his right hand during a rocket attack while serving with the Air Force in Iraq in 2004 and earned a Purple Heart, faces charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Conviction on those charges carries sanctions of up to 40 years in prison.

Previously in the case: We Build the Wall federal fraud case: Brian Kolfage co-defendant denied separate trial

From 2019: Local activist promises news on border wall work

Trial on those charges is scheduled for May 16, although previous trial dates have been subsequently moved for a variety of reasons, including most recently Kolfage's switch to new counsel.

But before that court appearance, Kolfage is scheduled for trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Pensacola on March 7 on two charges of filing a false tax return and one charge of wire fraud in connection with the electronic filing of one of those returns. Conviction on those charges carries sanctions of up to 20 years in prison.

Both federal courts handling Kolfage's cases have been in communication regarding scheduling issues, court documents in each jurisdiction show.

Both sets of charges are related to alleged irregularities in the handling of funds donated to a Florida nonprofit organization founded by Kolfage to fund private construction of sections of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

In late 2018, Kolfage, who had been associated with a number of right-wing websites since about 2015, began a GoFundMe campaign to raise private donations to assist the federal government in then-President Donald Trump's push to build sections of wall along the border.

Within a few months, however, as donations stalled at about $20 million, Kolfage shifted the focus of the effort to privately funded construction of sections of border wall. In pursuit of that goal, he created the nonprofit We Build The Wall Inc. (WBTW), giving contributors to the GoFundMe effort the option to have their donations returned.

Much of the money donated to the GoFundMe campaign stayed with the nonprofit organization, and Kolfage would later claim that $7 million of the nonprofit's donations funded construction of a nearly one-mile section of border wall in Sunland Park, New Mexico.

Kolfage also told the Daily News some months ago that WBTW participated financially in construction of a 3.5-mile section of wall in Mission, Texas, although it's not clear exactly how much of the nonprofit's money went into that venture.

But in August 2020, a grand jury in the Southern District of New York indicted Kolfage and three other codefendants on charges that they had improperly steered money from the nonprofit for personal uses. One of those codefendants, former Trump White House political adviser Steve Bannon, was pardoned by Trump last year in the waning hours of Trump's term as president.

Bannon is alleged to have steered $1 million in WBTW funds to a separate nonprofit organization that he controlled, while Kolfage is alleged to have received $350,000 in the scheme.

A third codefendant, Colorado businessman Timothy Shea, whose enterprises include include the energy drink "Winning Energy" — advertised as including "liberal tears" — allegedly received "hundreds of thousands" of dollars in donor funds steered to a limited liability corporation he created for "social media" work that was not performed, according to court documents.

The remaining codefendant in the New York case is Florida financier Anthony Badolato, who is alleged to have facilitated the scheme that allegedly steered WBTW donors' money away from its stated purpose.

In the Florida case, Kolfage is alleged to have not reported the income he received from We Build The Wall and other sources in both his initial 2019 tax return and in a subsequently amended 2019 return.

Trial in the Florida case, based on an original indictment, had been set for August of last year, but it was moved to September after a superseding indictment more fully addressing alleged irregularities with Kolfage's 2019 tax return was handed down by a grand jury.

Following the issuance of the superseding indictment, Kolfage's counsel asked for a delay in order to review what a court filing called "voluminous" materials that the government was required to turn over to defense counsel for use in preparing the case.

In an order issued in August of last year, U.S. District Court Judge M. Casey Rodgers granted a longer delay than had been requested in setting the Florida trial date for March 7 of this year.

With regard to the New York case, where trial dates had previously been moved from May of last year to November of last year, a filing earlier this month from U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres noted that on Dec. 7 of last year, parties involved in the case "provided their availability for trial in the second calendar quarter of 2022, and stated that they are available to begin a jury trial on May 16, 2022. The Court shall, therefore, request that trial in this matter begin on May 16, 2022."

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Brian Kolfage, We Build the Wall trial gets reset for March 2022