Say you’re a billionaire and you’re picking up your first superyacht. Nothing fancy – just a little number like Lady May, 152 feet long, sleeps ten and has a crew of eight. You bought her because of her white marble surfaces, Macassar ebony cabinets and quantum zero-speed stabilisers so your trays of cocaine don’t spill on the high seas. What delicious thoughts must run through your head after buying it. You’ll be sparkling off the coast of Cannes… serenading the Plage Gazagnaire with the sound of Icelandic techno from your enormous speakers… inviting over a runway’s worth of Victoria’s Secret models to open a methuselah of Dom Perignon Rose Gold 1996. And with a white captain’s cap rakishly perched on your head? Naturally, old chap.
Who knows what Guo Wengui, the Chinese billionaire, first thought when he bought Lady May. But whatever dreams he must have had about sailing it round the world will have come crashing down to earth when his good friend Steve Bannon was arrested on board last month. Donald Trump’s campaign manager and chief White House strategist was sipping his morning coffee and reading a book when federal agents raided the yacht.
Bannon is alleged to have run a scam under the guise of We Build The Wall, a fundraising effort designed to support the wall’s construction on the Mexican border. It raised $25 million from hundreds of thousands of Americans, some of which Bannon is said to have pocketed along with three co-conspirators – a former Breitbart writer, a pro-Trump energy drink seller and an Air Force veteran who became a professional Facebook spammer. Bannon, who pleaded not guilty, was released from custody on a $5 million bond and will face trial in May 2021. His story now seems cut and dry.
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