Steve Bannon, a former senior advisor to President Donald Trump, and three others were arrested on Thursday for allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign for one of the president’s pet projects of building a wall along the border with Mexico.

“As alleged, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretence that all of that money would be spent on construction,” said acting US attorney for the South District of New York in a statement announcing the arrests and charges.

The project was called “We Build the Wall”.

“While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle,” the US attorney added.

Bannon was chief executive of the Trump campaign and after election joined the White House staff as chief strategist. He did not last long, and left the administration in August 2017.

The other two arrested and charged are Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea.