“Well, it always feels good to be right.”
Such was the response from Marianna Treviño Wright, executive director of the National Butterfly Center, when asked for reaction to the news that key members of We Build the Wall — the nonprofit that, in part, funded the construction of a private border wall along the banks of the Rio Grande — pleaded guilty to federal crimes in New York last week.
“I said from the beginning this man is a grifter, and a con artist, and a fraudster — and that’s what he was doing here, and now he has confessed to it,” Treviño Wright added, referring to We Build the Wall’s founder, Brian Kolfage.
Last Thursday, Kolfage and another man, Andrew Badolato, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud during a hearing held virtually at the Manhattan federal courthouse.
Kolfage further pleaded guilty to three other charges of wire fraud and filing false tax returns stemming from a related criminal investigation in Florida.
The pleas were a drastic change of course for the outspoken Kolfage, whose We Build the Wall aimed to crowdfund money to help former President Donald Trump build a border wall along the nation’s southwest border.
Kolfage became a right wing media darling as he pushed the fundraising campaign online and during multiple appearances on outlets such as Fox News — all the while insisting he would not personally profit from the endeavor. But in federal court Thursday, Kolfage admitted this was a lie. He admitted to intentionally funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to himself and trying to obscure his actions by filing false tax returns.
“I knowingly and willingly conspired to receive money from the donations,” Kolfage said while reading from a prepared statement, according to reporting by BuzzFeed News’ Salvador Hernandez.
“I filed the tax return electronically. I knew what I was doing was wrong and a crime,” Kolfage said.
With his guilty plea, Kolfage has agreed to forfeit more than $17.8 million “representing proceeds traceable to the commission of the offense,” that “the Defendant personally obtained,” according to a forfeiture order signed by the judge Friday.
Part of that forfeiture includes nearly $1.4 million in cash held by We Build the Wall in a Capital One bank account.
Badolato faces a $1,414,368 money judgment as part of his own guilty plea.
Kolfage has agreed to serve between 51 to 63 months in prison, and to pay an additional fine of up to $200,000 as part of his plea agreement, though U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres has yet to accept the plea, according to BuzzFeed News.
HOW IT STARTED
Kolfage, 39, is an Iraq War veteran who in 2004 lost both his legs and part of his right arm when a rocket landed just feet away as he left his quarters for a drink of water.
He received a Purple Heart after his injuries, and later detailed his military experiences by becoming a public speaker.
In late 2018, Kolfage began a GoFundMe campaign aimed at raising $1 billion to fund Trump’s border wall efforts. Within five days of its launch, the crowdfunding campaign had raised more than $12 million.
But when it became apparent that the federal government has no mechanism for accepting such a donation, Kolfage switched gears and launched We Build the Wall in January 2019.
The nonprofit soon racked up a who’s who of supporters, and established a board of directors with several prominent anti-immigration Republicans.
That included former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon — who served as the nonprofit’s board chair — and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who served as its general counsel.
The advisory board included several other notable figures, including Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL and founder of the private military company, Blackwater USA; former Colorado Rep. Thomas “Tom” Tancredo; and former Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke, who served as senior adviser to the Donald Trump super-PAC, America First Action.
We Build the Wall would go on to raise $25 million in donations, according to federal prosecutors.
THE CONSPIRACY
In August 2020, Kolfage, Badolato, Bannon and a fourth man, Timothy Shea, were indicted on two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The 24-page indictment laid out precisely how the four men orchestrated the scheme to defraud the hundreds of thousands of people who made small donations to the campaign — a scheme that was put into play just days after the nonprofit’s founding.
“To induce donors to donate to the campaign, KOLFAGE and BANNON — each of whom, as detailed herein, exerted significant control over We Build the Wall — repeatedly and falsely assured the public that KOLFAGE would ‘not take a penny in salary or compensation’,” the indictment reads, in part.
“Those representations were false. In truth… the defendants, collectively received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donor funds from We Build the Wall, which they each used in a manner inconsistent with the organization’s public representations,” it further reads.
Kolfage received at least $350,000 and used the proceeds for lavish purchases, including a boat dubbed “Warfighter,” a Land Rover Range Rover, cosmetic surgery and home renovations.
Bannon, the one-time presidential adviser, allegedly controlled the entire operation.
After the indictment was handed up by a New York grand jury, authorities executed an arrest warrant for Bannon, finding him aboard a private yacht off the Connecticut coast.
The former chair of right wing media outlet, Breitbart, and host of the now-banned YouTube channel, War Room, was later issued a full pardon by Trump during the president’s last hours in office.
Meanwhile, prosecutors say Badolato and Shea helped obscure the graft by funneling donations through various shell companies disguised as legitimate payments to Kolfage, and his wife, Ashley, for social media consulting services.
Badolato and Shea allegedly kept some of the proceeds for themselves.
Badolato has now admitted to doing just that; however, Shea continues to maintain his innocence.
Court records show Shea’s trial may begin as soon as May 16, depending on whether another trial slated to begin that day moves forward.
VINDICATION
The guilty pleas — particularly that of Kolfage — represent long-awaited vindication for Treviño Wright.
“Kolfage’s guilty plea substantiates our allegations that he knowingly and willingly committed a variety of crimes for his own personal profit,” she said.
“Among those crimes was maliciously defaming me, personally, and the National Butterfly Center, and disparaging the North American Butterfly Association.”
Not long after construction crews began clearcutting foliage at the private border wall site in late 2019, NABA filed suit against its builder, North Dakota construction tycoon Tommy Fisher, as well as landowners, Neuhaus and Sons.
The lawsuit also named Kolfage and We Build the Wall as defendants.
Treviño Wright believes Kolfage latched onto the center — and her — because of the notoriety they received in the wake of the center’s 2017 lawsuit against the federal government and its own wall-building efforts.
She believes Kolfage saw an opportunity to drum up donations by using her as a polarizing foil. And indeed, at the height of the fundraising campaign, Kolfage would often use social media to accuse Treviño Wright and the butterfly center of participating in drug and child sex trafficking.
It became a pernicious, long-lasting allegation that was soon championed by the likes of other far-right leaning personalities, as well as believers in QAnon.
Most recently, in January, a Republican congressional candidate from Virginia — Kimberly Lowe — paid a visit to the butterfly center and posted video livestreams echoing Kolfage’s accusations.
In a Facebook Live video she has since deleted, Lowe can be heard saying Treviño Wright was “OK with children being sex trafficked and raped and murdered.”
But now that Kolfage has pleaded guilty, Treviño Wright is eager to include his admission of wrongdoing in the butterfly center’s pending defamation case against him.
“Kolfage is a liar. Always has been and always will be. And now he has had to admit it publicly to a judge and for the world,” Treviño Wright said before saying Kofalge’s name with disdain and a four-letter epithet.
