Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese billionaire known for his criticism of the Chinese Communist Party and close ties to American conservatives, was found guilty by a U.S. jury on Tuesday of defrauding his online followers out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mr. Guo, who used a number of pseudonyms including “Miles Kwok” and “Ho Wang Kwok,” built a large online following through YouTube videos critical of China’s Communist government. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged that Mr. Guo raised more than $1 billion by assuring thousands of followers that they wouldn’t lose money investing in his various businesses and cryptocurrency schemes.
Prosecutors said Guo used the money to live a lavish lifestyle, including buying a New Jersey mansion, a red Lamborghini and a yacht. After a seven-week trial, Guo was found guilty on Tuesday of nine of 12 charges, including organized crime conspiracy and wire fraud.
The defendants face decades of prison time, according to U.S. Attorney Damien Williams. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres has set the sentence for November 19.
“Exiled Chinese businessman and alleged billionaire Miles Guo brazenly perpetrated multiple, interrelated fraud schemes with the intent of swindling his loyal followers out of their hard-earned money while he lived in a 50,000-square-foot mansion, drove a $1 million Lamborghini and relaxed on a $37 million yacht,” Williams said in a statement.
“Thousands of Mr Guo’s online followers sacrificed their lives to enable him to live a life of luxury,” Williams added. “Today, Mr Guo’s scheme comes to an end.”
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The billion-dollar fraud scheme lasted for years.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Guo was accused by federal authorities of carrying out a “wide-ranging and complex scheme” between 2018 and 2023 and was arrested in New York in March 2023. Guo was initially charged with 12 counts, including wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.
According to prosecutors, Guo, along with his business partner Kim Myong Cheol, solicited investments of more than $1 billion in various entities and ventures through false statements and explanations. According to prosecutors, the scheme included lying to victims about their investments, promising them “huge profits” if they provided funds to several of Guo’s entities, including GTV Media, the Himalayan Agricultural Federation, G|CLUBS and Himalayan Exchange.
During the trial, prosecutor Juliana Murray said Guo used the illegal funds as a “personal piggy bank” to support his lavish lifestyle in the U.S. During closing arguments last week, prosecutor Ryan Finkel played videos of Guo pitching investments, including several that showed him standing on the deck of a yacht.
According to prosecutors, Guo and Ji laundered the money into multiple bank accounts and paid for expensive purchases, including a 50,000-square-foot mansion in New Jersey, a custom-made $4.4 million Bugatti sports car, a $3.5 million Ferrari, a $37 million luxury yacht and a $62,000 television. Guo also purchased about $978,000 worth of furniture and decorative items, including Chinese and Persian rugs.
Ji, a dual Hong Kong and British citizen, remains a fugitive, according to US federal prosecutors. He has been charged with 11 of the same crimes as Guo, but faces an additional sentence of up to 20 years in prison for obstructing justice.
Federal authorities also arrested and indicted Guo and Ji’s co-conspirators in March 2023. Yangping Wang, also known as “Yvette Wang,” was charged with wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, according to the indictment.
Who is Guo Wengui?
The businessman, once one of China’s richest men, left China in late 2014 and sought asylum in the United States, accusing Chinese authorities of corruption, according to the Associated Press.
The US Attorney’s Office said Guo had been living in the US since about 2015 and had amassed a large online following “who were inclined to believe what he said about investment and money-making opportunities that aligned with his policy objectives in China.” CNN reported that Guo amassed a following through livestreaming events.
In 2017, Guo’s lawyer told The New York Times that the billionaire was seeking asylum because he was considered a “political opponent of the Chinese regime” for criticizing Chinese officials. According to CNN, Guo’s assets were seized by the Chinese and Hong Kong governments in 2017 during a money laundering investigation.
Guo was also an ally of Steve Bannon, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump. During the trial, Finkel showed jurors a clip of Bannon promoting one of Guo’s businesses at a 2018 press conference, according to Reuters.
Bannon was arrested on Guo’s yacht in August 2020 on an unrelated fraud charge and later pardoned by President Trump. He was then convicted in 2022 for failing to comply with a subpoena from a House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Bannon began serving a four-month prison sentence earlier this month.
Contributors: Amritpal Kaur Sandhu-Longoria, Maureen Groppe, Bart Jansen, USA TODAY. Reuters
