Brian Colfage, the founder of a viral campaign that paid for Donald Trump’s wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, admitted to federal prosecutors on Thursday that he pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors who filed his case. .
Colfag received 51 to 63 months in prison, paid more than $ 17 million in proceeds for the “We Will Build a Wall” campaign, paid more than $ 140,000 in unpaid bills, and paid $ 20,000 to $ 200,000 in installments. Penalty agreement Due to a wrong income tax set in 2019.
“I am forcing donors to choose a new project, which is partly due to misinformation that I will not benefit from We Build the Wall, will not receive a salary or compensation,” Colfage said in a statement prepared Thursday in a virtual court. “I am deliberately and voluntarily planning to get money from donations.”
Conservative activist and conspiracy theorist He admitted he spent $ 350,000 for donors – boats, expensive cars, jewelry and plastic surgery – despite promises not to receive funding or pay for his work funding.
“I know I’m doing something wrong and a crime,” said Colpage, who once claimed that the allegations made before the 2020 presidential election were entirely “politically motivated, given the timing.”
New York Southern District Judge Analiza Torres has not yet accepted the appeal. The sentence is scheduled for Sept. 6.
Colfagi was arrested in the summer of 2020 along with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and two other men involved in the plan. While Trump pardoned Bannon of every accusation in the final moments of his presidency, he did not do the same to Colpage and other accusers.
One of them, Andrew Badolato, pleaded guilty to fraud on Thursday and faces up to four years in prison. Second, Timothy Shea was not guilty.
Source: Huffpost
