A court in the United States has handed down the highest sentence yet to a defendant involved in the “We Build the Wall” fundraising campaign, which purported to support the construction of former President Donald Trump’s wall along the border with Mexico.
Timothy Shea, 52, of Castle Rock, Colorado, received a prison sentence on Tuesday of five years and three months for his role in what prosecutors called “a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors”.
“We Build the Wall” was created to raise funds for an expansion of the barrier along the US-Mexico border, initiated by Trump as a key part of his controversial immigration platform.
An estimated total of $25m was raised through the fundraising drive. But prosecutors have alleged that, instead of contributing to the border wall’s construction, hundreds of thousands of dollars went instead towards the organisers’ personal gain.
At Shea’s sentencing in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday, US District Judge Analisa Torres accused the Colorado businessman and his co-defendants of betraying the public’s confidence.
“They hurt us all by eroding the public’s faith in the political process,” she said.
Source from www.aljazeera.com