The Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui was arrested on Wednesday and charged with defrauding thousands of people for the purpose of personal enrichment to the tune of more than $1 billion, U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday. From his gilded exile in Manhattan, Guo Wengui presented himself as a fierce opponent of the Chinese regime and displayed his unfailing support for Donald Trump. He was notably one of the very close to the sulphurous Steve Bannonthe former adviser to the populist president, says CNBC. Taken into custody on Wednesday morning in New York, the 52-year-old is accused of defrauding and embezzling investors’ money using various schemes, including his media company GTV Media Group, an agricultural loan program via Himalaya Farm Alliance and a cryptocurrency called Himalaya Coin.
See more
Mansion, Rolls Royce and $630 million seized
Guo Wengui, hunted by China who accuses him of financial fraud in his country, is the subject of an indictment containing eleven charges of electronic fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. Following his arrest, American justice immediately seized more than 630 million dollars from various bank accounts as well as from real estate such as the sumptuous mansion of more than 4,600 m2 in New Jersey or even vehicles from luxury brands Bugatti, Lamborghini or Rolls Royce.
A mysterious fire
While the FBI was at the Chinese billionaire’s apartment executing a search warrant, a mysterious fire broke out, reports CNN. U.S. Attorney’s Office Spokesperson Nicholas Biase, said the cause of the fire was under investigation. Presented to a judge on Wednesday afternoon, Guo Wengui “pleaded not guilty and agreed to be taken into custody”, the prosecution told l’AFP. His lawyers, solicited by various media, have chosen not to follow up.
Enemy of Xi Jinping, close to Donald Trump
The businessman, who made his fortune in real estate, moved to the United States in 2015, fleeing China where he is the subject of an Interpol red notice, for financial fraud which he denies . A fierce critic of Beijing, while admiring the ideas of Donald Trump, the businessman promised to do everything to democratize the Chinese regime. “I want to try to achieve a rule of law, to achieve democracy, freedom, this is my ultimate goal, a change of the regime”, if possible “within three years”, he explained. in 2017 at theAFP.
A year later, Guo Wengui formalized an alliance with the former adviser to Donald Trump, a figure of the hard right and conservative American in order to expose the crimes perpetrated, according to them, by the Chinese government for many years. Together, Guo Wengui and Steve Bannon formed a lobby, fiercely opposed to the Chinese Communist Party: the New Federal State of China.
Steve Bannon was arrested in August 2020 on the Chinese billionaire’s yacht, for his participation in an embezzlement linked to the wall project against immigration on the Mexican border. An alleged accomplice of Guo Wengui, Kin Ming Jeis also the subject of the indictment of the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan, but he is “at large” and actively wanted by the American justice, indicates theEcho.
