NEW YORK — A Colorado entrepreneur accused of funneling kickback cash from a charity that raised money to build a wall on the Mexican border committed “fraud, plain and simple,” prosecutors said in Manhattan federal court Tuesday.
Timothy Shea was in charge of a shell company that moved $20,000 of donations a month from the “We Build the Wall” fund to Brian Kolfage, a triple-amputee Air Force veteran who founded the campaign, which the feds say was controlled by Steve Bannon, a onetime strategist for former President Donald Trump.
“He (Shea) knew what they were doing was wrong and illegal,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe. “You’re going to see the defendant’s own words... You’ll see the messages in which they hatch the plan for stealing the money and paying illegal kickbacks.”
