Third associate of Steve Bannon sentenced to 63 months in prison for border wall scheme

By Jamiel Lynch, CNN

(CNN) — A third associate of Steve Bannon was sentenced to 63 months in prison for the “We Build the Wall” online fundraising fraud scheme, according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Timothy Shea was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and obstruction of justice, the release said.

Shea was sentenced for “his role in carrying out a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign known as ‘We Build The Wall’ by soliciting donations using false statements and then stealing the resulting donations, as well as laundering the proceeds of the fraud scheme and attempting to obstruct the federal criminal investigation of the scheme,” the release added.

CNN has reached out to Shea’s attorneys for comment.

“Timothy Shea abused the trust of donors to ‘We Build the Wall,’ stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to line his own pockets, and attempted to obstruct the federal investigation of his criminal conduct,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in the release.

In addition to prison time, Shea must forfeit $1,801,707 and pay a restitution of the same amount. He was also given three years of supervised release.

Two other associates of Bannon, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, were sentenced earlier this year after pleading guilty for their part in the scheme, CNN previously reported.

Kolfage and Badolato were indicted alongside Bannon and each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in April 2022. Kolfage also pleaded guilty to two counts of filing a false tax return and one count of wire fraud in connection with filing a false tax return.

Bannon, who pleaded not guilty to the federal charges and denied any wrongdoing, was pardoned by then-President Trump in his final days in office. Bannon still faces charges in New York state court, CNN reported earlier this year.

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CNN’s Laura Ly and Kara Scannell contributed to this report.