Man who misused donations solicited for Trump agenda sentenced to prison

A Colorado man was sentenced Tuesday to 63 months in prison for his role in a scheme that misused donations solicited for former President Trump’s border wall agenda.

Prosecutors said Timothy Shea and two founders participated in an online fundraising scheme and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations raised for a campaign called, “We Build The Wall.” Donors were told the money would help fund the building of a wall at the U.S. border with Mexico, a central focus of Trump’s platform.

The Southern District of New York U.S. attorney’s office said the campaign raised over $25,000,000 as Andrew Badolato repeatedly promised donors “100 percent” of the funds would go to the campaign’s mission.

Meanwhile, Shea, co-defendants Brian Kolfage and Badolato, and others created a scheme to route the payments to entities and bank accounts in their control, and concealed the payments with fake invoices and sham contracts, according to prosecutors.

“Timothy Shea abused the trust of donors to ‘We Build The Wall,’ stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to line his own pockets, and attempted to obstruct the federal investigation of his criminal conduct,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement Tuesday.

Shea was convicted last fall on three charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and obstruction of justice.

In addition to prison time, Shea was sentenced to three years of supervised released and was ordered to forfeit $1,801,707 and pay restitution in that same amount.

Kolfage and Badolato each pled guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, while Kolfage also pled guilty to tax and wire fraud charges. Kolfage and Badolato were sentenced to prison in April to 51 months and 36 months respectively, and were both given three years of supervised release. Kolfage was ordered to forfeit $17,872,106 and pay restitution of $2,877,414. Badolato was ordered to forfeit $1,414,368 and pay restitution in the same amount.

Trump’s former adviser and longtime ally Steve Bannon was accused of being involved in the scheme, but Trump granted him clemency just before leaving office. While the federal fraud case against Bannon was dismissed, he now faces state-level charges from Manhattan prosecutors. He is likely to stand trial in November for his alleged role.

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