Tag: prison
Running His Crypto Scam Out Of White House, Trump Will Pocket Billions

Running His Crypto Scam Out Of White House, Trump Will Pocket Billions

Let’s say you and I and every bank robber serving time in federal prison and every con artist behind bars for fleecing suckers out of their life savings and every Bernie Madoff-style-Ponzi schemer and every Mafia don who ever blackmailed a bodega owner or ran a crooked dice game – let’s say we all got together in a room and tried to come up with a brand new scam to rip people off and separate people from their money…and get away with it free and clear.

I’m here to tell you that even with all that criminal talent, we couldn’t come up with a masterpiece of thievery that compares to what Donald Trump and his family are running right now, today, out of the White House. Our President, the one 77 million of our fellow citizens voted for and put in the Oval Office for another four years, the one who told the Atlantic earlier this week that “I run the world,” has decided that he will spend his time in office fleecing that world of every dollar and nickel and dime he can get, and he’s doing it with crypto.

It’s so complicated that you can barely wrap your mind around it, and yet it’s so simple, not even Trump and his two dullard sons could fuck it up.

The New York Times published a story on Tuesday that makes a brave attempt at explaining how they’re doing it: Secret Deals, Foreign Investments, Presidential Policy Changes: The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm. It’s written by three of the Times’ top investigative reporters, and it’s thick with details of shady foreign investors from dark corners of the money-world like Abu Dubai and the Cayman Islands and Hong Kong, and the reporters do their best to describe the whacko-crypto-Rube-Goldbergo thing called “World Liberty Financial” the Trump family has established to run their scam, and it’s so impenetrable, I guarantee your eyes will cross and then roll back into your head as you try to make sense of it.

This is what the New York Times is so good at: they get out there and make a record of who’s involved and how many times they’ve been indicted and how much time they’ve done in prison. Then they make the connections between the three card monte pasts of the crypto scammers and the Trump family in the White House, with Eric and Don Jr. flying around the world to Pakistan and the Emirates and taking meetings with Silicon Valley zillionaires and coming up with new scams like the pay-to-play crypto dinner Trump is planning to put on at one of his golf clubs for anyone…and I mean anyone…who spends some of their millions on a fucking meme coin called “$TRUMP” in order to be on the guest list.

The Times reports that World Liberty Financial – in reality, behind a very, very thin corporate veil, Donald Trump himself – made $550 million selling its first digital token, “$WLFI,” to a bunch of crypto scammers who recently settled cases brought against them by the Securities and Exchange Commission. At least one scammer, Justin Sun, the guy who bought the banana stuck to a wall with duct tape for $6 million, had his SEC case dropped, right after – you guessed it – he spent $75 million buying $WLFI “coins.”

And here’s the beauty part. I’m going to do my best to describe the scam the Times calls “partnerships” between the Trump company, World Liberty Financial, and other crypto firms. Here it is, in all its glory, and you tell me if this doesn’t sound like a crypto protection racket. The smaller crypto outfits agree to buy, say, $20 million to $30 million of World Liberty’s “coins” like $WLFI. The Trump company then agrees to buy a smaller amount of their crypto currency.

This “investment” of World Liberty in the smaller crypto firms is supposed to give them credibility in the world of crypto, and for this generous endorsement, the Trump company gets to keep the difference between what the little guys spent on $WLFI, and what the Trumps spent on the little guys’ coins, amounting, according to the Times, to as much as a 20 percent premium. All of the specific details like names of the crypto firms and amounts they “invested” is kept confidential, so nobody in the greater world of crypto can discover how badly they’ve been taken to the cleaners.

Got that? You give me a quarter, all your lunch money, and not only do I promise not to beat the shit out of you with the SEC and DOJ and FTC and all the other regulatory and prosecutorial departments I control, I’ll even give you two dimes back and not tell anybody how I held you up.

And oh, by the way, buy a few million of my worthless crypto “coins” – of which I already own 80 percent of the world’s entire stock – and I’ll feed you some rubber chicken at my New Jersey golf club and give you a tour of the White House after hours.

Wow, what a deal.

There are other scams, because of course there are. Trump pardoned one guy who got convicted of violating banking laws with his crypto business. In return, he permitted the Trump company to buy some of his crypto currency at bargain basement prices. And then Trump turned around and announced the U.S. government will put its power and prestige behind a so-called “crypto reserve” that will store up a bunch of crypto currency just like it stores oil in “oil reserves” against a future shortage of that precious resource, and you’ll never guess whose crypto currency the U.S. government has chosen as one of the currencies it will store in its reserves, along with the grandfather of all crypto, Bitcoin. Yep. The crypto currency that Trump bought from the guy he pardoned, the value of which has now shot straight up like a rocket.

Remember how corrupt we thought Spiro Agnew was when it was revealed that after being elected Vice President, he continued to take cash from contractors he had extorted when he was governor of Maryland? Just the image of the Vice President reaching across his desk and physically accepting a paper bag full of twenty-dollar bills was enough to get him to resign in return for a plea bargain on a tax evasion charge that gave him no jail time.

How much do you figure Donald Trump will scam in crypto by the time he leaves office? The Times didn’t attempt an estimate of the amount he has made so far, but just running through the hundreds of millions and tens of millions mentioned in their story, along with the tens of millions in the stories that have been written about the pay-to-play golf club crypto dinner, he’s approaching a billion dollar take…after just 100 days.

It's no wonder he doesn’t give a shit about the damage to the world’s economy his tariffs have done. The only economy he cares about is the blue-smoke-and-mirrors illusion of crypto. Like his hair, nobody but him knows how much of it is real, or how the elaborate scam is held together, but it got him elected, and it’s going to make him richer than he ever dreamed.

Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels. He writes every day at luciantruscott.substack.com and you can follow him on Bluesky @lktiv.bsky.social and on Facebook at Lucian K. Truscott IV. Please consider subscribing to his Substack.

Reprinted with permission from Lucian Truscott Newsletter.


Steve Bannon

Pleading Guilty To Felony Fraud, Bannon Escapes Prison, Vows Revenge

Steve Bannon, a longtime adviser to President Donald Trump and ally of white nationalists, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a fraud charge related to duping donors who gave to his “We Build the Wall” fundraising effort.

In exchange for the guilty plea in New York state criminal court, Bannon agreed to a three-year conditional discharge and waived his right to appeal. This means he will not receive any prison time, assuming he does not re-offend.

But he didn’t get off completely scot-free: Bannon will not be allowed to serve as an officer or director of a charity or any charitable organization in New York, or any fundraising or nonprofit organization in New York. He will also not be allowed to receive or hold assets for any charitable organizations, NBC News reports.

If he violates any terms of the deal, he could face between 1 ⅓ to 4 years behind bars, according to his plea deal.

“This resolution achieves our primary goal: to protect New York’s charities and New Yorkers’ charitable giving from fraud,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement toUSA Today and other outlets, including NBC News.

Bannon was accused of defrauding New Yorkers who donated to “We Build the Wall,” an online fundraiser aimed at fulfilling a pet project of Trump’s during his first term in office. But the indictment alleged that Bannon and others had swindled donors who contributed more than $15 million for the 2019 alleged fundraising project.

While Bannon had said that all of the donations would go toward the construction of a southern border wall, authorities said Bannon redirected the funds elsewhere. In fact, Bannon had secretly funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the group’s president, Brian Kolfage, through third-party entities, prosecutors said.

According to ABC News, Kolfage was paid $100,000 upfront and received monthly payments of about $20,000.

Kolfage and another man involved with the project, Andrew Badolato, previously pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2022 and were sentenced to prison.

The “War Room” podcast host was first indicted in 2022 on six charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and fraud. The indictment from Bragg’s office alleged that Bannon orchestrated a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud those who donated to his “We Build the Wall” crowdfunding campaign. The trial was set to begin next month.

Bannon had faced five felony counts, including money laundering and conspiracy charges, and faced a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison on the most serious charge.

The Trump ally wasn’t exactly repentant for his actions. In fact, after the hearing, he said he planned to call on Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James and to investigate Bragg, both of whom have successfully challenged Trump in court.

James, Bannon said, is an “existential threat to the Trump administration.”

This is not Bannon’s first time running afoul of the law. He spent four months in jail in 2024 after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before a House select committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021.

So far, Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist for just seven months during his first term, hasn’t been brought into the second administration. He currently spends a lot of time raging about Elon Musk.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Steve Bannon

Released From Prison (For Now), Bannon Resumes Spewing Of Election Lies

Former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon was released from a federal prison on Tuesday. Bannon served four months after being convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress in October 2022.

The right-wing podcast host served his time after numerous appeals and rejections, including the Trump-friendly Supreme Court’s June decision to deny another request to delay his prison sentence.

Bannon couldn’t stay out of prison despite being the beneficiary of one of the sloppy pardons Trump handed out at the end of his term in office. He was indicted on federal charges of fraud and conspiracy alleging that he and other organizers of the “We Build the Wall” nonprofit used donor money to enrich themselves instead of actually building a wall along the southern border of the United States. Bannon is still facing similar fraud charges from Manhattan prosecutors.

The Trump loyalist was back to promoting conspiracy theories on his “War Room” podcast just hours after his release on Tuesday. Whether it’s peddling 2020 election lies or ruminating about far-out theories involving ”deep state” psychological operations involving pop star Taylor Swift, Bannon’s podcast is the place where he and people like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene can peddle conspiracy theories about a murky “globalist elite.”

CNN reports that Bannon's podcast has diminished in popularity during his absence, and even a revolving crew of MAGA celebrity hosts including fellow ex-Trump adviser (and ex-convict) Peter Navarro hasn't done much for its ratings. And while many believe Bannon’s show will likely recover now that their No. 1 trainwreck is back at the helm, a spike in ratings might not be enough to have any impact on an election that is only one week away.

“I think it’s going to take some time to bring the audience back and to mobilize them,” Madeline Peltz, deputy director for rapid response at Media Matters, told CNN. “I don’t think the one-week period between now and the election is enough time to complete that, but I think really, you’ll see it kick into high gear in the post-election chaos that we’re all sort of anticipating.”

Bannon’s New York trial for his border-wall fraud was delayed while he served his prison time and is set to begin in December. Thoughts and prayers.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Bannon Sweating Over July 1 Incarceration With 'Dangerous Criminals'

Bannon Sweating Over July 1 Incarceration With 'Dangerous Criminals'

Steve Bannon — former President Donald Trump's chief White House strategist — will report to federal prison on Monday. And according to a recent report, he's quietly fretting about the people he'll be with while incarcerated.

The Daily Beast reported that an unnamed source close to Bannon said the far-right activist is "quite concerned" about the fellow inmates he'll encounter throughout his four-month federal prison sentence at FCI Danbury, in Connecticut. Bannon, whose Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate number is 05635-509, will notably have a tougher time than fellow Trump advisor Peter Navarro, who is at a federal prison camp in Florida.

According to the Beast, Navarro's camp is "much less strict on inmates" and his biggest concerns are likely "boredom and slow communications." Bannon, on the other hand, has a separate criminal detainer for allegedly defrauding supporters of an online crowdfunding campaign to build a wall along the Southern border, for which he is still awaiting trial in Manhattan. Because of that, Bannon's sentence will be served in a harsher environment.

One of the Beast's unnamed sources told the publication that Bannon "will be on a more rigid day-to-day schedule that has less freedom of movement, stricter check-ins and will be surrounded by more dangerous criminals." Reporter Josh Fiallo noted that FCI Danbury's inmate population of roughly 800 prisoners includes "sex offenders and violent criminals."

The 70-year-old Bannon has maintained that he is a "political prisoner" and that his "voice will not be suppressed" despite being behind bars. His podcast co-host, Mike Davis, recently said Bannon is "unfazed and determined." The former Trump advisor and Breitbart News chief vowed that he would be working toward "total and complete victory" during his prison sentence.

Bannon was initially found guilty of contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena from the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack and initially sentenced in 2022. However, he fought the imposition of his sentence for more than two years, initially succeeding in staying out of prison as he made his way through the appeal process. The Supreme Court finally issued a one-sentence ruling on Friday that Bannon would have to report to prison.

"If it took me going to prison to finally get the House to start to move, to start to delegitimize the illegitimate J6 committee, then, hey, guess what, my going to prison is worth it," Bannon told ABC's Jonathan Karl earlier this week.

Bannon reportedly hired prison expert Sam Mangel — who was also hired by Navarro — to help him prepare for his sentence. Mangel, who himself served a 60-month federal prison sentence for financial crimes, told the Beast earlier this month that federal prison is no picnic for a first-time inmate. When speaking to the hypothetical situation of Trump potentially being incarcerated, Mangel said the experience would be "humiliating" and "degrading" for the ex-president.

"Inside you get up at six in the morning, you go to your meals as dictated, you get the same phone time, the same lights out at four o’clock in the afternoon, you have to stand next to your bed for count,” he said. “So it is a humiliating situation. And especially for somebody like the former president."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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