A former adviser to the US President is charged with embezzlement and money laundering. Steve Bannon allegedly embezzled donations. Trump has also commented on the allegations.
Former US President’s chief strategist Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, pleaded not guilty on suspicion of fraud following his arrest. Judge Stewart Aaron in New York ruled Thursday that Bannon would be released on bail of five million dollars. Of this, Trump’s ex-advisor has to deposit 1.75 million as security. Aaron also imposed a travel ban on areas outside of the northeast USA. Bannon has to hand in his passport.
The 66-year-old was arrested on a yacht off the coast of Connecticut on Thursday at 7.15 a.m. (local time), according to the prosecutor. The New York City Attorney’s Office accused him and three other suspects of having diverted money from an online fundraiser to build a wall on the border with Mexico. The non-profit organization called “We Build the Wall” has raised more than $ 25 million from “hundreds of thousands” donors.
Judge Aaron ordered Bannon to apply for permission to use private planes or boats. He is also not allowed to have any contact with the other defendants or with any person with ties to We Build the Wall.
Trump doesn’t want to have known anything
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump assured that he knew “nothing” about his campaign to finance a wall on the US border with Mexico. “I didn’t know anything about the project,” Trump told journalists in the White House. He also had no contact with Bannon for “a very long time”.
The indictment went on to say that the organization had advertised that 100 percent of the funds would go towards building a wall. The 38-year-old founder and president of the organization repeatedly falsely assured the public that he would not receive any salary or remuneration. Bannon stated publicly: “We are a volunteer organization.” These representations were wrong.
Sums passed on through straw companies
In order to disguise the payments to the also accused president of “We Build the Wall”, the four had hatched a plan to channel funds, among other things, through the non-profit organization under Bannon’s control and through a straw company. That happened, for example, through fake invoices. This was to ensure that the payments remained “confidential”, as can be seen from text messages from the President to a co-defendant.
Acting district attorney Audrey Strauss said the organization’s president had used the funds to finance his lavish lifestyle. Bannon and the three other defendants were arrested on Thursday, according to prosecutors. According to the allegations, the fraud plans of the four accused date back to the end of 2018. According to information on the homepage of “We Build the Wall”, Bannon was chairman of the advisory board.
Also charged with money laundering
The prosecutor said the accused would be charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money. The two points could result in a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison each.
Bannon is one of the most influential voices in the ultra-conservative camp of US politics. The co-founder of the arch-conservative Internet platform “Breitbart” joined the Trump team before the 2016 election campaign phase and then took over the leadership of the election campaign. He is credited with a significant share in the then rather surprising move of the real estate billionaire into the White House.
After Trump moved into the White House, Bannon became Trump’s chief strategist, his influence has been described as formidable. Bannon is considered one of the architects of Trump’s “America First” strategy and a vehement advocate of the president’s nationalist economic policy. In the summer of 2017, the 66-year-old had to take his hat off under pressure from Trump. At the time, the White House announced that Bannon had met the Chief of Staff John Kelly agreed to vacate the advisory post.
Contact with right-wing populist parties
Bannon was then in contact with right-wing populist parties in Europe. Last year his plans to turn an old monastery not far from Rome into an academy for right-wing populists failed. In the spring of 2018, the chairwoman of the AfD parliamentary group, Alice Weidel, met with Bannon.
Building a wall on the border with Mexico was one of Trump’s key campaign promises ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump also promised Mexico would pay to build the wall, but it didn’t. So far, nearly 300 miles (480 kilometers) have been built – at the expense of the US taxpayer. Of the republican Trump wants to have a wall built on half of the 3200-kilometer border with Mexico in order to ward off illegal border crossings by migrants. The Democrats are strictly against the wall.
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