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.
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.