NEW YORK — The Coloradan tied to the "We Build the Wall" fundraiser, aimed at raising money for a border wall, is now the last defendant standing in the criminal case related to the project.
Timothy Shea, from Castle Rock, has seemingly opted to go to trial for charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and falsification of records.
As Shea awaits the trial, currently scheduled for May, two others pleaded guilty Thursday to charges in the case that once also included former President Donald Trump's adviser Steve Bannon.
Brian Kolfage, co-founder of the project, admitted to pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars while promising all donations would pay for the wall.
The case began in dramatic fashion in August 2020, when Bannon was pulled from a luxury yacht off the coast of Connecticut and arrested on allegations that he and three others ripped off donors trying to fund a southern border wall.
Bannon was pardoned by Trump just before he left office last year. Bannon had pleaded not guilty to charges he pocketed over $1 million, using some of the money to secretly pay Kolfage, a 39-year-old Air Force veteran who lost both legs in a mortar attack in Iraq.
A guilty plea Thursday by codefendant financier Andrew Badolato, 57, in the case during the same remotely conducted electronic hearing before U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan meant that only Shea of the four originally charged might now go to trial unless a plea agreement is reached before then.
Plea agreements between the government and Kolfage and Badolato specified the defendants will not challenge sentences within an agreed-to guidelines range. For Kolfage, that range was four to five years. For Badolato, it was roughly 3 1/2 years to four years. Sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 6.
Kolfage, of Miramar Beach, Florida, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and tax charges brought originally in Florida. Badolato, of Sarasota, Florida, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy. Without the plea deal, Kolfage could have faced up to 46 years in prison while Badolato faced a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison.
The organizers of the “We Build The Wall” group raised more than $25 million from thousands of donors as they repeatedly pledged that every dollar would be used for the project.
Asked to describe his crimes by the judge, Kolfage said the group had originally intended for all the raised money to be used to build a wall, but it “soon became apparent” that the plan to donate the money to the U.S. government for the wall's construction was not possible.
At that point, he said, they “induced donors to opt in to the new project” to build a border wall on private land by falsely representing that none of the donations would be spent on salaries or compensation to the fundraisers.
“I knew what I was doing was wrong and a crime,” he said.
After he spoke, Torres asked questions, including whether he had promised the public that “100 percent” of the money would go toward building the wall.
“That is correct,” he answered.
“Despite your promise, you made an agreement with others to keep a large sum of money for yourself,” the judge said.
“That is correct,” Kolfage answered.
Badolato said he engaged in the conspiracy from 2018 to 2020, agreeing to assure donors that all the money would go toward building the wall when he knew the statements were false.
“I knew this was wrong and I’m terribly, terribly sorry for what I did and I humbly beg the court for mercy,” he said.
When the judge asked Badolato if he was aware that Kolfage was going to get money from donations, he said: “Yes I did and I helped facilitate it.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos said evidence against the men at trial would have included testimony from donors, along with transaction records following donations into the defendants' bank accounts, emails and text records, along with public statements made by the coconspirators that were false.
Shea was originally arrested in August 2020 at his Castle Rock home. An indictment accused him of helping funnel donated money to Kolfage through a "veiled shell corporation."
Through the alleged scheme, court documents said Shea and the others received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donor funds from We Build the Wall that were "used in a manner inconsistent with the organization’s public representations."
Shea's wife, Amanda Shea, told 9NEWS in 2018 that they were accepting physical checks for border wall donations at a P.O. Box with a Castle Rock address. She said then all money would go directly to the border wall.
"As we all know, the government is not great stewards of people's money, and it could just be misappropriated in little ways and whatever, and we don't want that to happen, that's not our purpose," she said at the time.