New York-Sana
US federal prosecutors in Manhattan today formally charged Steve Bannon, former advisor to President Donald Trump, of fraud and embezzlement of funds via the Internet, in connection with a fundraising campaign to support the construction of the border wall that Trump promised to establish between the United States and Mexico.
Manhattan Attorney General Audrey Strauss said in a statement that Bannon, who was one of the architects of Trump's 2016 election campaign, is accused, along with three other officials, of embezzling funds estimated at $ 25 million from hundreds of thousands of donors and of using hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover private expenses.
Bannon, a prominent figure on the US political right, had served as a campaign advisor and White House advisor in the Trump administration, who made building a border wall a key promise of his campaign in 2016.
According to investigators, the embezzlement operations began in December 2018, according to investigators, as Bannon and other officials assured the donors that all the money collected through the site will be allocated to building the wall, the symbol of Trump's immigration policy, but they embezzled part of it through a non-profit organization and a fake company, especially through forged invoices.
Trump was quick to disavow his former advisor's crime, claiming he had "never known" about the fundraising website.
