Exiled Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui jailed 30 years in New York for US$1b fraud

NEW YORK, June 30 — Exiled Chinese entrepreneur Guo Wengui, convicted of defrauding thousands of people of more than US$1 billion (RM4 billion), was sentenced yesterday to 30 years in prison by a federal court in New York, US media reported.

In July 2024, a jury unanimously found him guilty of fraud and various securities offenses, wire fraud and money laundering.

Also known as Ho Wan Kwok and Miles Guo, he was accused of leveraging his online notoriety since 2018 to persuade thousands of people to invest in his companies or projects, which promised lucrative returns or luxury services but allegedly mainly served to fund his lavish lifestyle, according to US authorities.

The billionaire businessman, in his fifties — his exact age is unknown — was arrested by the FBI in March 2023 in his luxury Manhattan apartment overlooking Central Park.

His former associate Yvette Wang was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison for her role in the scheme.

Guo Wengui, who made his fortune in real estate, moved to the United States in 2015, fleeing China, where he was targeted by an Interpol red notice for financial fraud — accusations he denies.

From his gilded exile in New York, he portrayed himself as a fierce critic of the Chinese communist regime and a staunch defender of democracy, while maintaining ties with the notorious US right-wing figure Steve Bannon.

Together, they formed a lobbying group opposed to the Chinese Communist Party: the New Federal State of China.

Bannon was arrested in August 2020 on the Chinese businessman’s yacht in a case involving the embezzlement of funds tied to the US border wall project against immigration at the Mexican frontier, a flagship promise of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The scandal-plagued Guo Wengui made headlines again after his arrest by announcing plans to organise an online auction of “unvaccinated sperm,” based on the conspiratorial notion that vaccines cause mass sterility. — AFP