US arrests Chinese billionaire on fraud rap

NEW YORK: A Chinese tycoon with close ties to an adviser to former US President Donald Trump has been arrested in New York and charged with extorting $1 billion from his anti-Beijing activist supporters.

The U.S. Department of Justice found that Guo Wengui and his still-at-fugish British co-conspirator, Jie Qing Ming, stole funds from participants in the investment scheme, selling a yacht, a 4,645-square-meter mansion, and $3.50 luxury goods. accused of making it available for purchase. Million Ferrari.

Court officials said late Wednesday that Guo, who is also wanted in China, pleaded not guilty at his initial arrest hearing but agreed to detention.

Hours after he was arrested at 6 a.m. in his Manhattan penthouse apartment overlooking Central Park, a fire broke out in his building, raising suspicions that the two may be related.

Guo’s arrest came nine years after the former real estate billionaire fled China in 2014. While he is an outspoken critic of corruption within the Chinese government, he has been charged with fraud and corruption.

Using the Cantonese name Ho Wan Kwok, the Justice Department used the Cantonese name Ho Wan Kwok to mark Mr. Guo’s prominence as a critic of the government of Chinese leader Xi Jinping while he was in exile in New York. He said he took advantage of it and gained a lot of supporters online.

These supporters were encouraged to donate or invest in Guo-controlled nonprofits and businesses, including the GTV Media Group, whose director was Steve Bannon, a major adviser to Donald Trump.

That activity has spread to other avenues to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, including luxury clubs, cryptocurrency issuer Himalaya Exchange, and the Himalaya Farms Alliance, which promised investors discounts on GTV shares.

But the Justice Department said Guo and Zhe diverted funds for their own use, including Guo’s New Jersey estate and yacht, a custom-built Bugatti sports car, and two mattresses priced at $36,000 each. .

In 2021, US financial authorities called GTV’s investment solicitation an illegal public offering and forced Guo to repay investors about $500 million and pay a fine of about $40 million.

In a series of actions since then, authorities have seized approximately $634 million in funds raised by Guo and Je and on Wednesday indicted the two on multiple counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction. bottom.

“Fraudulent investment fraud preys on innocent people and ultimately undermines public confidence in the integrity of the financial system,” said FBI Deputy Director Michael Driscoll.

Billionaire crackdown

Guo arrived in the United States in 2015 after escaping the Xi Jinping regime’s crackdown on China’s racy billionaires and corrupt officials.

He was accused of paying large bribes to powerful national intelligence and security officers.

However, he claimed to be the victim of a business dispute with a former Communist Party official.

He later claimed to have details of a business deal by Wang Qishan, the all-powerful anti-corruption emperor of Beijing and later vice president of China.

He arrived in the U.S. in style, bought a $67.5 million Manhattan penthouse, advertised being persecuted by the Chinese government, and applied for political asylum.

In 2017, at Beijing’s request, Interpol issued a red notice (a non-binding warrant) calling for Guo’s arrest and extradition.

sent security officials to New York to pressure him to return. It recruited sympathetic US businessmen with ties to Mr. Trump to persuade him to deport Mr. Guo.

Alliance with Bannon

But Trump’s Washington failed to take action, and in late 2017, Bannon, who had left his White House job, began working with the Chinese bigwigs.

Together they built a highly political media operation, including Guo’s broadcast to China and Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.

Bannon, meanwhile, was reportedly paid $1 million as a consultant by Guo, who promoted him on his podcast.

In early 2020, they formed a lobby group against the Chinese Communist Party called the New Federal State of China.

When Trump lost his run for re-election in 2020, the two combined to support the unsubstantiated claim that mass voter fraud caused his defeat.

By then, both were under federal investigation.

In 2020, Bannon was arrested for defrauding donors while on board Guo’s $35 million, 150-foot yacht anchored off the coast of Connecticut.

A year later, when Guo used a network of nonprofits and investment schemes to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, he was forced to settle a $539 million fraud claim from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. ,There was a problem.

In 2022, Guo violated a court order and moved out of the United States to avoid having his yacht seized.

When a judge ordered him to pay a $134 million fine, he filed for bankruptcy to protect his assets.