Guo Wengui

2023 - 3 - 16

Post cover — Image courtesy of "South China Morning Post"

Guo Wengui and his associates are only the tip of an iceberg of ... (South China Morning Post)

The arrest in the United States of the self-described billionaire and fugitive in relation to an alleged US$1 billion fraud will hopefully close a sorry ...

Exiled Chinese billionaire with ties to Steve Bannon arrested in New ... (Fortune)

Exiled Chinese billionaire and vocal critic of Beijing has ties to former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

The Wall Street Journal reported in 2020 that Bannon and Guo were two of the main people behind GTV. To cover their tracks, they allegedly employed a money-laundering network involving more than 500 accounts held by at least 80 people and entities, according to the US. The most serious charges, including fraud and money laundering, carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. They also claim he poses a danger to the public if released on bail. At his initial court appearance late Wednesday, Guo was dressed in black and sported a gray beard and round glasses. A Lamborghini Aventador is among the seized assets. He sought political asylum in the US in 2017 after the regime sought to arrest him through Interpol. Several firetrucks and a Police Department Bomb Squad vehicle were parked outside the hotel. Bannon, whom Trump pardoned on the federal charges, still faces related charges in New York state court and has pleaded not guilty. Guo and Je conspired to cheat thousands of victims out of more than $1 billion using “a series of complex fraudulent and fictitious businesses and investment opportunities,” prosecutors alleged. But first, in a strange turn of events, a two-alarm fire broke out on the hotel’s 18th floor, where Guo — also known as Miles Kwok — lives. Je is at large, Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

Exiled Chinese businessperson Guo Wengui charged with US$1b ... (Malaysiakini)

The US government on Wednesday charged Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese businessperson with ties to former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon, with leading a ...

A spokesperson for New York City's fire department said no injuries were reported and officials were investigating. They will propose a "robust bail package," according to Tamara Giwa, a federal public defender who represented Guo at Wednesday's hearing. Guo has denied wrongdoing. He was not handcuffed and brought his hands together in a prayer sign toward spectators before being led out. Lawyers for Guo did not immediately respond to requests for comment. He is at large.

US authorities arrest Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui for allegedly ... (Republic World)

Guo Wengui, China's billionaire and proclaimed dissident, has been arrested for allegedly defrauding thousands of followers through complex investment ...

Guo Wengui had co-founded two nonprofit organisations - the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation. Guo has been known for his staunch criticism of the Chinese government and has been exiled to Manhattan. Guo Wengui, China's billionaire and proclaimed dissident, has been arrested on Wednesday for allegedly defrauding thousands of followers out of more than $1 billion through complex investment schemes, reported CNN.

Guo Wengui: US accuses Chinese exile of $1bn fraud conspiracy (The Times)

A Chinese billionaire living in exile in the United States has been arrested on charges of fraud and money laundering involving more than $1 billion.

Guo Wengui net worth: Fortune explored as Steve Bannon associate ... (Sportskeeda)

On Wednesday, March 15, exiled Chinese businessman and Steve Bannon associate Guo Wengui was arrested on fraud and money laundering charges.

The Guardian reported on Wednesday that when Wengui was arrested, a fire broke out in his apartment. CNBC reported that in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Guo Wengui and Steve Bannon allegedly used a sophisticated online misinformation network to sell questionable Covid treatments to customers. The Wall Street Journal noted that while Guo Wengui was once the 73rd richest person in China, his life changed in 2014 after Chinese authorities accused him of several charges, including bribery, kidnapping, money laundering, and assault. Wall Street Journal noted that Wengui and Bannon co-founded GTV Media Group. As per the New York Times, Guo Wengui initially cultivated his fortune in China through lucrative land deals. According to Opoyi, while Guo Wengui was known to be worth $1.1 billion in 2015, he filed for bankruptcy in February 2022.

$32m penthouse mysteriously catches fire during arrest of Chinese ... (The Independent)

Exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui was taken into custody early Wednesday when federal agents swooped on his Central Park penthouse in the ...

“Unbeknownst to those investors, Guo and his financial adviser, Je, misappropriated a large portion of the funds raised ... Guo and Je also allegedly fraudulently obtained more than $150m through the Himalaya Farm Alliance, $250m from an online membership club called G CLUBS, and the Himalaya Exchange. Guo – who helped found a media group under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission – has long-running connections to Bannon and owned the 152-foot-long yacht on which Bannon was arrested in August 2020. He is currently at large. [Guo Wengui](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/guo-wengui), an ally of far-right activist and former [Donald Trump](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/donald-trump) aide [ Bannon](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/steve-bannon), was taken into custody early on Wednesday morning when federal agents swooped on his Central Park penthouse in the Sherry-Netherland Hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Guo Wengui arrested on suspicion of $1b in fraud (China Daily)

Guo Wengui, one of China's most wanted fugitives, was arrested in New York on Wednesday on charges of overseeing a $1 billion conspiracy, ...

According to media outlets, Guo was arrested in his luxury apartment near Central Park on Wednesday morning. They added Guo would face more than 100 years in prison if convicted of all charges. Guo was charged under the name Ho Wan Kwok. He is also the subject of an Interpol Red Notice — an international arrest warrant. US prosecutors said the indictment stemmed from a complex scheme in which Guo lied to hundreds of thousands of people around the world before misappropriating hundreds of millions of dollars. Guo Wengui, one of China's most wanted fugitives, was arrested in New York on Wednesday on charges of overseeing a $1 billion conspiracy, local media reported.

Fire in luxe Midtown penthouse of exiled Chinese tycoon Guo ... (New York Daily News)

In a curious plot twist, a fire broke out on the same floor as Guo's $32.5 million apartment in the Sherry-Netherland hotel in Midtown around noon, ...

Guo Wengui arrested on suspicion of $1b in fraud (China Daily)

Guo Wengui, one of China's most wanted fugitives, was arrested in New York on Wednesday on charges of overseeing a $1 billion conspiracy, ...

Guo Wengui Adviser Also Faces U.S. Charges in $1 Billion Fraud ... (Caixin Global)

As fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui was arrested in New York Wednesday, his long-time financial adviser and alleged co-conspirator William Je also ...

- 3 - PODCAST Justice Department said Wednesday in a statement.

Cops probe whether fire at Chinese billionaire's NYC pad was set ... (New York Post)

Authorities are trying to determine if the fire at Gue Wengui's palatial Manhattan apartment at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel, which sources said was also ...

“The fire was probably not started by a person in the space. The group “Everything that happened in there, especially in the solarium, was recorded. “It was absolutely wired,” the source said of Guo’s luxury apartment at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel on Fifth Avenue. In 2020, Guo and Bannon started a political group with the aim of overthrowing the ruling Communist government in China. The sources said the flames destroyed “the beautiful wood-paneled library — there was a bar in there.”

What Secrets Does the “Donald Trump of Beijing” Know? (The New Yorker)

The American adventure of Guo Wengui started eight years ago at a penthouse on Fifth Avenue, and it has ended there—for now, at least.

In a sign of the complexity of the case, the New York Fire Department reported Wednesday that a fire erupted in Guo’s penthouse at the Sherry-Netherland around noon, hours after he was arrested. In one case, a protracted battle over an unpaid loan of two hundred and fifty-four million dollars, a New York judge chastised Guo for having “secreted his assets in a maze of corporate entities and with family members,” and ordered him to pay a hundred and thirty-four million dollars in fines for having moved the Lady May out of state in violation of a court order. [protested for months](https://www.cambridgeday.com/2023/02/02/why-an-exiled-chinese-billionaire-has-protesters-outside-the-home-of-a-cambridge-schoolteacher/) outside the home of Despins’s daughter, a third-grade schoolteacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Liman wrote, “The evidence at trial does not permit the Court to decide whether Guo is, in fact, a dissident or a double agent. Those ties could make him “messy” to prosecute, as a former Justice Department official put it at the time, because Guo could threaten to reveal secrets about his interactions with the U.S. [concise inventory](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/01/federal-judge-orders-bannon-ally-to-end-harassment-campaign-against-creditors/) not long ago, Dan Friedman, a Mother Jones reporter who has written extensively about Guo’s activities, noted that Guo “spread lies about Hunter Biden, helped to finance efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and underwrote discredited claims that Covid is a Chinese bioweapon.” It is anyone’s guess what more will be disclosed when prosecutors put people under oath and subpoena financial records. For all the manifestations of lurid abuses, the outlines of the fraud sketched out by prosecutors have scarcely changed since “The Music Man”—there will always be flimflam men preying on the hopes of others—but a trial has the potential to unearth a far more interesting tale about Guo’s dealmaking in American politics, intelligence, and law enforcement. In a detailed indictment unsealed Wednesday, federal prosecutors accused Guo and a co-defendant, Kin Ming Je, of orchestrating fraud involving more than a billion dollars, in which Guo amassed hundreds of thousands of followers online—many of them Chinese expatriates who believed in his promises to “take down the CCP”—and solicited their investments in a range of bogus ventures involving cryptocurrency, clubs, and the media. Or was he somehow secretly connected to his old contacts at the Ministry of State Security in China and trying to work his way back into power back home? Even after Guo and his followers launched attacks on respected Chinese dissidents, he continued to enjoy the company of Trump allies, such as Rudy Giuliani, Michael Flynn, Peter Navarro, and Jason Miller, who appeared at Guo’s events and in his broadcasts. In a statement, Damian Williams, the U.S. From that perch, Guo made a singularly strange foray into the ranks of Republican politics, amassing a vast fortune and an array of admirers close to

Guo Wengui

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