This is the $28 million yacht Steve Bannon was arrested on

NY Post ^ | August 20, 2020 | 3:25pm | Lia Eustachewich

[conservative98]

Accused fraudster and former White House strategist Steve Bannon was aboard a $28 million yacht owned by a Chinese billionaire when he was arrested on fraud charges Thursday morning, according to reports.

The 150-foot mega vessel was in the Long Island Sound near Westbrook, Connecticut, when President Trump’s former strategist was picked up by US Postal Service inspectors, the Hartford Courant reported.

The boat, the Lady May, is owned by Guo Wengui, one of China’s most wanted fugitives, who is wanted in Beijing on fraud, blackmail and bribery charges

[rwa265]

Looks really nice on the inside.

https://virtualboatshow.boatinternational.com/moran-yacht-ship/lady-may

[Alberta's Child]

I'll tell you where the holes are in these charges:

From what I've seen, they've been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and with money laundering (to carry out the alleged fraud).

My initial reaction to the charges is this:

1. The money laundering itself is not a crime unless the fraud charges are proven. You can launder money to your heart's content without running into any legal trouble, as long as you aren't doing it to hide a crime. So let's get that charge out of the way first.

2. The wire fraud charge is either incomplete, or it makes no sense on its own. There's no such thing as "wire fraud" (or "mail fraud") as a stand-alone Federal crime. These Federal crimes basically mean: "The defendant used telecommunications systems and/or the U.S. mail service to commit fraud." The wire fraud charge as it appears to be written makes no sense because there is no underlying fraud charge accompanying it. My understanding is that charging someone with wire fraud without an actual fraud charge is like charging someone with "assault with a deadly weapon" without ever describing the weapon in the indictment.

I must point this out, though ... It is entirely possible that the Federal wire fraud charge is linked to a related fraud charge that is going to be prosecuted in STATE court. Defrauding donors to a charity, for example, may not be a Federal crime but may be a crime in every state. So an indictment in a case like this would usually list the state fraud counts and then the accompanying Federal charges of wire fraud, mail fraud, etc.

If this is the case, then it may be that Bannon and his associates are going to be facing separate state fraud charges -- probably in the State of New York. Even so, I find it highly irregular that those charges wouldn't at least be listed in the Federal indictment as the underlying fraud that establishes the case for a Federal wire fraud charge.

[Texas Fossil]

Maybe so But:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Strauss

Audrey Strauss (born 1947 or 1948) is an American attorney serving as the acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. As deputy U.S. Attorney, Strauss assumed the acting position on June 20, 2020, after the previous U.S. attorney, Geoffrey Berman, stepped down amid pressure from Attorney General William Barr.

Strauss returned to the Southern District of New York in 2018, serving as Deputy U.S. Attorney under Geoffrey Berman. During her tenure as Deputy U.S. Attorney, Strauss worked on cases against Michael Cohen, Chris Collins, and Rudy Giuliani associates Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas.

On June 20, Barr stated that the President had fired Berman, adding, “By operation of law, the Deputy United States Attorney, Audrey Strauss, will become the Acting United States Attorney,” serving until a nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Berman then agreed to step down.

Apparent revenge for firing of her last Boss.

It is the ComDem way. They have been doing things like this from the time President Trump was elected. Using an Obama weaponized justice system to punish all who support President Trump.

[frog in a pot]

...a CCP orchestrated hit...Bannon is public enemy #1 to the CCP...

Thanks for the assessment.

Any enemy of the CCP ought to be the tentative new best friend of every American patriot.

Emails and bank transactions are easy enough to generate, although there may be other evidence a bit more problematic.

In any event, resolving this legal challenge may be far down on Bannon's threat list, with being in jail even for a few days very likely near the top.

What Bannon is obviously now more concerned about is the level of influence the CCP may be able to bring to bear on U.S. government agencies to do its bidding. The thought of a Biden presidency has probably been near the fore of his thinking.

Thanks for the link at your #20, Chode

[Okeydoker]

First of all their motives, whatever they are or might be, is beside the point. The defendants either committed a crime or they didn’t. The indictment, if its true, shows they did. The politics of the prosecutor is irrelevant if anyone would have filed the charges.

I am a big trump supporter. I would have easily filed the charges, they are crooks. Period.

[FreedomPoster]

That’s a pretty serious looking seacraft, but I doubt it could make it to 80 mph . . .

[Jane Long]

Thank you!! Your entire post deserves reposting...

People who have followed Bannon for years see this for what it was, a CCP orchestrated hit. Bannon was on the yacht of Miles Guo because they have been working together for years to defeat the CCP and free the Chinese people from their enslavement.

Guo is a former high ranking CCP billionaire who escaped with his life when he defected from the party and has devoted his life to removing it from power in China. He has a price on his head and must continuously move to avoid being kidnapped by CCP operatives.

His yacht is where Bannon broadcasts his new podcast which Guo subtitles into Chinese and rebroadcasts through the CCP firewall to the people of China. They are heroes to the millions of Chinese expats around the world who have formed the Free Republic of China organization in exile. There is a reason Bannon is public enemy #1 to the CCP especially now that Xi Jinping is in political trouble.

This and the VICE article on which it is based imply Bannon received $1M himself but in fact this was the total that was paid to 4 people including the $350K to Kolfage. The money was not used to pay for Bannon’s “lifestyle” since he was already quite wealthy and doesn’t need to skim a paltry $250K using a highly public 501c that is fully documented and monitored by the government. He is far too committed to the success of the boarder wall to worry about chump change like this.

The truth will come out but right now the feeding frenzy is doing everything it can to claim another Trump supporter scalp. Stay tuned.

[Okeydoker]

No, you are mistaken.

The fraud was telling people to donate because they were not going to take any money which they in fact did. It’s wire fraud because the wire was used to transfer money from one account to another, specifically from the charity to some front organizations then into personal bank accounts. The wire was used to complete the fraud. Money laundering has to do with them trying to hide the source of the money by running it through phony front accounts.

[Alberta's Child]

More information here ...

The bigger "hole" in the case for me is this: Misleading donors about what you're doing with every dollar they send to you doesn't necessarily constitute fraud.

If Bannon and his associates collected millions of dollars in donations to build a border wall and then enriched themselves while never building a wall, then this would almost certainly be grounds for a fraud charge. In this case, it looks like they DID build the wall. So that may explain why there's no immediate indication of an underlying fraud charge.

And even if they misled the donors about the whole effort being a "volunteer" initiative -- with no organizers of the initiative getting paid -- that doesn't necessarily mean they defrauded anyone. Lying and fraud aren't the same, even if lying to donors is a crappy thing to do. Maybe the money was paid from the non-profit organization to Bannon and his associates as consulting fees or promotional costs to raise additional money, and not salaries. These are legitimate costs for a non-profit group, though it looks bad if these costs are excessive. Think of it like an auto mechanic who offers to do a $500 repair on cars and tells customers he's charging $0 for the labor. If he installs a $250 part and charges you $250 for labor then he's defrauding you -- or at least engaging in false advertising. But if he marks up the price of the $250 part to $500 and writes the invoice as a $500 part with "free" labor, he's probably not going to face a legal problem.

What I find interesting is that there are no associated tax fraud or other related IRS charges here -- which is a giant red flag for me because it suggests everything they did was "by the book" under Federal tax law. If these guys truly defrauded their donors, then I would think a Federal tax fraud charge would almost certainly be in order.

[Okeydoker]

Wrong.

Tax fraud doesn’t exist if you declare the income, even if ungainly got. Al Capone didn’t declare his criminal income so he got prison.

The crime of fraud is making a representation that induces someone to give money with the intent to deceive. Telling someone to give because no money will go to the organizers wheN In fact There was already an arrangement to split proceeds and therE is a monetary loss is fraud. It matters not if some good was done. Telling the lie to get the donations with the intent is sufficient.

[Alberta's Child]

The fraud was telling people to donate because they were not going to take any money which they in fact did.

I understand that this was the narrative in the indictment, but read my post carefully again.

Were they actually charged with defrauding anyone? I mean -- is there a separate fraud count listed that establishes the basis for a Federal wire fraud count?

Like I said ... the fraud charge may not be a Federal charge even though the wire fraud is. But is there any reference to an actual count of fraud?

[Chode]

most welcome... it’s in two parts

[Okeydoker]

Well, there is an appropriate wire fraud charge because the interstate wires were used to commit the fraud.

The indictment repeatedly makes clear that a fraud occurred. That is why they repeatedly described how many times they lied about not getting any money which induced people to give. That is the heart of fraud, telling a lie to get someone to give money with the intent to deceive.

I understand your points. ,

[Alberta's Child]

Tax fraud doesn’t exist if you declare the income, even if ungainly got.

That would explain why the individuals were not prosecuted for tax fraud based on a failure to report the income, but your statement is simply not true. If the charges against Bannon and his associates are accurate, then this would seem to be a classic case of tax fraud simply for registering a non-profit organization on fraudulent grounds.

[coaster123]

My brother!

I was ignoring my ringing phone in the ‘70s. Cripes, people would get out of a shower to answer a call from who knows who. Crazy. I've not had a phone for about three years, now.

The posture of phone gazers is visually obnoxious.

Never owned a printer.

Go Trump!

[Okeydoker]

What were the fraudulent grounds?

It was registered to collect money to build a wall. What’s fraudulent about that filing?

[wally_bert]

There are a handful of people who rate being picked up on a call.

All others go to voice mail.

I go through a single toner cartridge every few years.

My hatred of printers is well known at the offices I take care of.

Nothing irks me more than a spoiled and intellectually lazy work from home type who insists on getting their printer on home WiFi no matter what. They act offended if I mention using a USB cable.

WiFi in printing is a convenience not a right.

[dead]

How do you make an ugly $28 million yacht?

[Alberta's Child]

If they set up a non-profit corporation and laundered money while profiting handsomely from it, then I’d say that’s a classic case of tax fraud. They paid no corporate taxes on it, paid no payroll taxes on their “income,” etc.

[Texas Fossil]

You are not admitting the reality of the current situation in the Federal Court system. There is no equal justice under the law. It is a fact. It has been a problem for years, but under Obozo it reached the point it is at now.

There is no justice under the law. It is weaponized and politicized. Denying that is pointless. I do not desire to argue this, but it is reality.