Self-exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui has been convicted by a US court of defrauding his online followers in a billion-dollar scam. He was found guilty on nine of the 12 criminal counts he faced, including racketeering, fraud, and money laundering. Guo’s sentencing has been scheduled for 19 November when he could face decades behind bars. He has been in prison since his arrest in March 2023.
He is a critic of the Chinese Communist Party and was an associate of Stephen Bannon, an ex-White House chief strategist under former president Donald Trump. Guo goes by several aliases, including Miles Guo, Miles Kwok, and “Brother Seven”. He was named as Ho Wan Kwok when he was indicted in 2023.
Prosecutors said Guo raised more than $1bn (£770bn) from online followers, who joined him in investment and cryptocurrency schemes between 2018 and 2023. The money he raised was used to fund Guo’s lavish lifestyle, which included a 50,000 square foot mansion, a $1m Lamborghini, and a $37m yacht, they said.
“Thousands of Guo’s online followers were victimised so that Guo could live a life of excess,” the US Attorney in Manhattan, Damian Williams, said after the verdict.
Guo’s political activism and his links to high-profile, right-wing US politicians and activists earned him hundreds of thousands of online followers, most of them Chinese people living in Western countries. Guo’s lawyers tried unsuccessfully to sway the jury by saying their client was a victim of a conspiracy.
Guo’s rise to prominence was as a fervent opponent of China’s political system, and his ostentatious lifestyle was a critique of the Chinese Communist Party. Following his arrest in 2023, Guo’s outspoken opposition to China’s rulers triggered several ventures with Bannon.
usatoday.com
