Brian Kolfage: We Build the Wall Fraud, Guilty Plea, and Sentence

Brian Kolfage, the decorated Air Force veteran and triple amputee who fronted the We Build the Wall crowdfunding campaign, pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to tax charges after prosecutors showed he had secretly diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations for personal use. In April 2023, a federal judge sentenced him to 51 months in prison and ordered him to forfeit more than $17.8 million and pay over $2 million in restitution.¹²

Who Brian Kolfage Was Before the Campaign

Kolfage served as a senior airman with the 17th Security Forces Squadron. On September 11, 2004, while deployed in Iraq, a 107mm rocket detonated about three feet from where he was standing. He lost both legs and his right arm, becoming one of the most severely wounded airmen to survive combat.³ He received the Purple Heart and, in 2012, was a guest at President Obama’s State of the Union address.⁴

He also built a network of right-wing websites, including Right Wing News, Freedom Daily, and VeteranAF, which he claimed brought in as much as $200,000 a month. The sites drew scrutiny for sensationalized and sometimes fabricated content.⁴ In October 2018, Facebook removed Right Wing News and hundreds of related pages in a sweep of accounts it said used inauthentic activity to drive traffic. Kolfage was later personally barred from the platform.⁵

The We Build the Wall Campaign and Its Promises

In December 2018, Kolfage launched a GoFundMe campaign with the stated goal of raising $1 billion to build a private wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Across platforms, the campaign eventually collected more than $25 million from hundreds of thousands of donors.⁶

The pitch to donors was explicit. Kolfage repeatedly promised that “100% of the funds raised will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose” and said he would “not take a penny in salary or compensation.”⁷ Those statements became the backbone of the government’s fraud case.

To handle the money, Kolfage and co-defendant Timothy Shea brought in Steve Bannon, a former senior adviser to President Trump, and Florida financier Andrew Badolato. They organized the nonprofit We Build the Wall, Inc., with Bannon as chairman of its advisory board and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach as general counsel.⁸

How the Fraud Worked

On August 20, 2020, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment charging Kolfage, Bannon, Badolato, and Shea with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.⁹ Prosecutors called the public promises about the money “lies” and described the nonprofit itself as a “cash cow.”¹⁰

The government said the defendants used shell companies and sham invoices to move money out of the nonprofit. Bannon allegedly ran a separate nonprofit that received more than $1 million from We Build the Wall, and portions of that were funneled back to Kolfage as a $100,000 upfront payment and roughly $20,000 in monthly payments.¹¹

Prosecutors later documented that Kolfage spent more than $350,000 of donor money on himself. Among the purchases: payments on a 40-foot Jupiter Marine fishing boat he named “Warfighter,” a luxury SUV, home renovations, a golf cart, jewelry, cosmetic surgery, personal taxes, and credit card debt.¹²¹³

Kolfage’s Guilty Plea and Sentence

On April 21, 2022, Kolfage pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He also pleaded guilty to wire fraud tied to filing false tax returns.⁷ The same day, he resolved separate charges out of the Northern District of Florida for filing false 2019 income tax returns; those returns omitted hundreds of thousands of dollars deposited into his personal account from We Build the Wall and related entities.¹⁴

The plea agreement called for a prison term of 51 to 63 months and required Kolfage to forfeit more than $17.8 million and pay at least $143,003 in unpaid taxes. The government also reserved the right to seize substitute assets purchased with donor funds, including the home renovations, SUV, golf cart, boat, and cosmetic surgery proceeds.¹⁵

On April 26, 2023, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres sentenced Kolfage to 51 months in prison and three years of supervised release, and ordered him to forfeit more than $17.8 million and pay over $2 million in restitution.²

What Happened to the Co-Defendants

Andrew Badolato

Badolato, described by prosecutors as the “connective tissue” between Kolfage and Bannon, pleaded guilty in April 2022 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was sentenced on April 26, 2023, to 36 months in prison, three years of supervised release, forfeiture of more than $1.4 million, and restitution of more than $1.4 million.² In July 2024, a court reduced his sentence to 33 months under a federal sentencing guideline amendment.¹⁶

Timothy Shea

Shea, a Colorado businessman, was the only defendant who went to trial. His first trial in May 2022 ended in a mistrial when a single juror held out. A second trial in October 2022 produced a unanimous guilty verdict on all three counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and falsification of records.¹⁷ Prosecutors said he kept more than $180,000 of donor money and tried to obstruct the investigation.¹⁸ On July 25, 2023, Shea received 63 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $1,801,707 in forfeiture and restitution.¹⁹ The Second Circuit affirmed his conviction in July 2024.¹⁶

Steve Bannon

Bannon pleaded not guilty and never stood trial on the federal charges. President Trump pardoned him in the final hours of his first term in January 2021.²⁰ Because a presidential pardon does not reach state offenses, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Bannon in 2022 on six state counts, including money laundering, conspiracy, and scheme to defraud.¹¹

On February 11, 2025, Bannon pleaded guilty before Justice April Newbauer in New York Supreme Court to one felony count of scheme to defraud in the first degree, a class E felony. The other five charges were dropped.²¹²² He received a three-year conditional discharge, avoiding prison as long as he stays out of trouble. The terms also bar him from serving as an officer, director, or fundraiser for any New York charity or nonprofit and prohibit him from using or selling data collected from We Build the Wall donors. A violation exposes him to a prison term of one and a third to four years.²⁰

Where Things Stand

We Build the Wall, Inc. is defunct. In addition to the personal forfeitures, Judge Torres ordered the forfeiture of more than $1.3 million still held by the organization and property in New Mexico where the group had begun construction.¹²

As of May 2025, the federal government filed a consent motion to reduce Kolfage’s sentence to time served, citing his medical status. The court was awaiting a response from the Bureau of Prisons on his medical condition and needs before ruling.¹⁶

1
NPR. We Build the Wall Founder Sentenced to Prison
2
NBC News. Bannon Allies Sentenced to Prison in Build the Wall Scheme
3
U.S. Air Force. Goodfellow Veteran Relives Experience for Airmen
4
Texas Tribune. Brian Kolfage – We Build the Wall
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NBC News. Founder of Viral Fundraiser for Trump’s Border Wall Has Fake News Past
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Military Times. Triple Amputee Veteran Arrested, Charged With Taking Money From We Build the Wall Donors
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U.S. Department of Justice. Two Leaders of We Build the Wall Online Fundraising Campaign Plead Guilty
8
WJCT. Privately Funded Border Wall Near Completion in New Mexico
9
U.S. Department of Justice. United States v. Kolfage, et al.
10
NBC News. Man Sentenced to 5 Years in Build the Wall Fraud Case
11
ABC News. Steve Bannon Pleads Guilty in Border Wall Fraud Case
12
Courthouse News Service. Founder of Wall-Building Fraud Sentenced to More Than Four Years in Prison
13
Task and Purpose. Brian Kolfage Fraud Boat Warfighter
14
U.S. Department of Justice. Local President of We Build the Wall Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges
15
BuzzFeed News. Brian Kolfage Wall Guilty Millions
16
CourtListener. United States v. Kolfage – Docket
17
Courthouse News Service. Guilty Verdict in Do-Over Trial on Border Wall Building Fraud
18
Tucson Sentinel. Border Wall Fundraiser Fraudster Sentenced to 63 Months in Prison
19
CNN. Timothy Shea Sentenced in Border Wall Scheme
20
NBC News. Steve Bannon Pleads Guilty in New York Build the Wall Case
21
Courthouse News Service. Steve Bannon Pleads Guilty to Felony Charge in We Build the Wall Case
22
Mother Jones. Steve Bannon Pleads Guilty to Fraud in Border Wall Case