Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former adviser, and three associates were charged Thursday with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors in an online crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $25 million toward building a wall on the southern border.
As part of their pitch, they assured the public that 100 percent of the funds raised would be used “in the execution of our mission and purpose,” the indictment reads.
One-hundred percent? That ambitious a claim — that every dollar collected will go toward the cause at hand — may be what attracted the attention of federal regulators, even before the first dollar was collected. That’s because a 100 percent promise is so difficult to achieve, and so unlikely to accomplish, that the pledge itself is a red flag to investigators.
For more on this story, go to NBC News.
