Brian Kolfage | |
|---|---|
 Kolfage before a news conference in 2019 | |
| Born | September 21, 1982 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Education | University of Arizona (BA) |
| Known for | Founding We Build the Wall, pleading guilty to federal wire fraud conspiracy and tax charges. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Criminal charges | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, tax fraud |
| Criminal penalty | 51 months (4 years, 4 months) in Federal prison, forfeiture of $17,872,106, restitution of $2,877,414 and three years of supervised release after completion of prison term. |
| Criminal status | Imprisoned at FMC Rochester |
| Spouse |
Ashley Kolfage (m. 2011) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Purple Heart |
| Military career | |
| Service | United States Air Force |
| Rank | Senior Airman |
Brian Kolfage is an American far-right political activist, former United States Air Force airman, and convicted fraudster. He co-founded We Build the Wall, a private organization that purportedly aimed to construct a privately funded barrier on the Mexico–United States border; he pleaded guilty in 2022 to federal fraud and tax crimes for defrauding donors to the group.
Kolfage is a triple amputee who suffered injuries during the Iraq War while serving with the U.S. Air Force. He later became a right-wing political activist who established a ring of conspiracy theory-promoting clickbait websites. In December 2018, Kolfage initiated a fundraising campaign ostensibly to build U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed U.S.–Mexico border barrier extension for an nonprofit organization called "We Build the Wall, Inc.," which ultimately raised $25 million, mostly from GoFundMe and other online crowdfunding. The organization constructed a 0.5-to-1-mile (0.80 to 1.61 km) fence near El Paso, Texas on private land adjoining the border using $6–8 million of the donated funds. It claimed that it planned to construct further barriers on private lands adjoining the border with Mexico in Texas and California, but never did so.
In August 2020, Kolfage was indicted, along with Steve Bannon and two other co-defendants, on federal charges of defrauding hundreds of thousands of We Build the Wall donors by diverting money that was raised to personal use. Federal prosecutors said that the defendants, despite telling donors that Kolfage would not be paid, schemed to divert $350,000 to Kolfage, "which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle."[1] Kolfage was separately indicted in May 2021 on federal charges of defrauding the IRS and filing false tax returns.
Kolfage pleaded guilty in 2022 to one count of wire fraud conspiracy and two counts of filing a false tax return (for failing to report the diverted income); a co-defendant, Andrew Badolato, also pleaded guilty to fraud. In April 2023, he was sentenced to four years and three months in prison, and ordered to pay $25 million in restitution. In July 2023, he was imprisoned at Federal Medical Center Rochester (Rochester, Minnesota) where he is serving his sentence and is due to be released in November 2026.