SOURCE: Wall GoFundMe sponsor just paid for a ‘nearly’ $1 million yacht (UPDATED II)
Update I (5:25 pm on 5/12/19, six hours after publication): Ads an uncorroborated statement from Brian Kolfage, and a response from the source who believes he is misspending funds.
Update II (6:25 pm on 5/12/19, six hours after publication): A journalist who first exposed Kolfage’s scams in 2014 and defeated his libel lawsuit in response has stepped forward to provide a detailed history of Brian Kolfage, The Wall GoFundMe sponsor’s scams. Title notes that the sponsor paid for the yacht. Kolfage still hasn’t emailed response to our questions.
A source close to the Florida man who raised over $22 million on GoFundMe in the “We The People Will Build the Wall” campaign just revealed today in their opinion money may be diverted to pay for a ‘million dollar’ yacht and high-flying lifestyle.
This article draws on the use of an anonymous source whose identity is being protected because they stepped forward to expose what they believe is a wrong-doing or possibly criminal fraud by the Wall GoFundMe campaign that received over 300,000 individual donations.***
That source is a known activist that is pro-Trump and has gone on Fox News for his bipartisan cause. The source told The Stern Facts that they “ironically” know Brian Kolfage, who built that Wall Go Fund Me page.
According to the source, Brian Kolfage personally confided that was “broke” last year after his “Right Wing News” empire—which the source was told was fake, but he never read—collapsed and Facebook “deplatformed” him.
Kolfage only responded to this story after publication, and TSF has responded with a list of questions about his project and continues to investigate his reply.
That anonymous source shared an Instagram post highlighting Kolfage’s recent purchase of a fine seagoing vessel which they believe is “close to a million dollars.”
After Kolfage commented to this story, the source said, “Whether he ordered it last year with the year before is irrelevant it’s still nearly a million dollar boat. Those new toys are very expensive as is flying private. Where did he get the money if his business was destroyed by Facebook? ”
Story continues below and the rest of the photos are embedded at the bottom of the story:
In the interests of fairness, TSF has provided Mr. Kolfage with a list of five questions about his venture and the opportunity to respond with any documentation regarding his yacht which will be published in this space.
Who is Brian Kolfage?
Kolfage is a Purple-heart decorated war veteran and triple-amputee who lost an empire on Facebook of literally “fake news” after the 2016 election.
Kolfage’s GoFundMe page touched a nerve amongst Trump supporters during the President’s government shutdown and while nearly suspended, was subjected to a mass opt-out.
“That’s why I’m sending it to you. I back what’s right,” said the anonymous source who elaborated in a phone call about the concern that the money wasn’t being spent on a wall. “That money was supposed to be for the wall. I hate fuckers that take money under false pretense. Kolfage is using the wall money to fly private, range rovers boats, etc…”
Two days ago, The Daily Beast’s Will Sommer wrote a story highlighting the non-existence of any serious plans to purchase land for Kolfage’s project, which he proudly highlighted with disgraced former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Sommer wrote:
Organized by triple-amputee veteran Brian Kolfage, the campaign eventually morphed into a nonprofit called We Build the Wall, which promised to build portions of the wall on private land using the money it raised.
Months later, there’s no evidence that any construction has started, despite claims from Kolfage and his allies that construction would start in April. And now Greene is wondering what ever happened to that wall he was promised his dollars would fund?
Complicating the effort further is that it’s not that easy to find private land right on the border where a wall can be built.
Kolfage and We Build the Wall’s board of directors have spent plenty of time in Arizona, ostensibly scouting private land to build the wall. But The Phoenix New Times reported in March that the “vast majority” of land on the border in the state is owned by the federal government. Meanwhile, many of the people who actually own land on the border told the New Times that they hadn’t been contacted by We Build the Wall.
The Post reports that Kolfage would not comment today either and that the ire of his followers is rising after numerous blown dates to begin constructing his wall. Kolfage’s project only became a possibility only after estranged former White House senior advisor Steve Bannon, Kobach and ex-Milwaukee Sheriff David A. Clarke got involved.
In early 2017, Kris Kobach became best known as the person whom President Trump appointed to lead a dubious voter fraud commission that made no significant findings. He is the former Kansas Secretary of State. Kobach got held in contempt of a federal court for being an atrocious lawyer in early 2018. The Kansas Supreme Court ordered a grand jury to investigate his handling of voter registration in 2016 after a citizen-initiated process. He then won the GOP gubernatorial nomination by a razor-thin margin in a primary that his Republican opponent openly accused him of cheating to win the recount, only to lose the general election by 5-points. Kansas political experts call Kobach “Democrats best hope” to win an open U.S. Senate seat next year.
Story continues below:
How did we get here?
Even Kolfage admitted defeat at one point, but the national political figures negotiated a deal to keep the money if their donors did not opt out after a mass email.
The veteran appeared to have moved on from the project and rapidly started a quirky business selling coins with his face on them, presumably to leverage the massive mailing list he collected from his GoFundMe campaign.
A month later Kolfage told Fox News in March that he insisted construction would start “within months.”
On April 14th, they made a press release that claimed 94% opt-in rate (available through the Wayback Machine) and that they identified landowners. A call for comment to the We Build the Wall contact Jennifer Lawrence was not answered and they didn’t call back. That same day, the opt-in period for the fundraiser ended, and GoFundMe has allowed the campaign to remain open for donations to this day.
The anonymous source indicated they believe there was a “very low” opt-out rate and that most donors left their money with Kolfage. The source indicated in strong language that Kolfage was manipulating donors with his personal story to support a profligate lifestyle.
Hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters paid Brian Kolfage millions of dollars under false pretenses, and he allied himself with some of the most well known, least successful Republican political figures.
Now, not only are thousands of disgruntled donors turning on Kolfage, but even people who know him personally are turning on the veteran who made millions from intentionally fake news, before moving on to what appears to be selling an intentionally fake wall on the internet.
Here are the rest of the photos of Brian Kolfage’s yacht:
***Editor’s note: The Stern Facts only makes use of anonymous sources who are known to the author as credible retellers of events, and in the event that a story of great public interest could not otherwise be told to protect their identities. In this case, the source has been known to the editing author of the story for at least four years. The source has given multiple credible interviews, including in-person discussions with the source’s legal counsel in matters of public interest. That is why TSF relies upon a single source interview for this story, which though unusual, is acceptable only because of the lengthy relationship under these circumstances.
CLARIFICATION: The words “really fake news” empire has been clarified by the source to really mean his above reference to the Facebook pages formerly known as Right Wing News which were taken down as part of what he characterizes as a “conservative purge” on Facebook and funds from the GoFundMe may be diverted.
