A Chinese Businessman Gets Arrested In a $1 Billion Fraud

Guo Wengui, a Chinese Businessman, has been arrested on federal charges out of New York.
The FBI agents raided the Chinese billionaire in his Sherry Netherlands apartment early yesterday morning.

An associate of Steve Bannon and Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui was raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in his apartment. He is in custody and allegedly orchestrating a conspiracy that federal prosecutors say amounted to more than $1 billion fraud. Wengui was a good friend of Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.

Chinese Businessman’s ‘Fraud’ Schemes

As the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, said, “Guo is accused of using funds raised through his company GTV Media and other entities to purchase various luxury items, including a 50,000-square foot mansion in New Jersey, a $37 million yacht, a $3.5 million Ferrari for his son, a $140,000 Bosendorfer piano, and two Hasten 2000T mattresses that each cost $36,000.”

Guo Wengui had previously been linked to Chinese Intelligence, and Republicans have praised and loved him. His schemes involved making false promises of high investment returns to online followers.

Surprisingly, after the arrest of this Chinese businessman, his luxurious penthouse apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side burst into flames. Meanwhile, burning for two hours before firefighters reach to put out the blaze. The FBI, however, is investigating the fire. His 15-room apartment is currently worth $32.5 million in the market.

Guo was involved in four schemes, while three were associated with his GTV Media Group. And these three alleged schemes raised an estimated $857 million. Along with Steve Bannon, Guo formed GTV Media which is a Chinese social media company.

In August 2020, Bannon was arrested on Guo’s yacht, the 152-foot-long Lady May. And then charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in connection to a crowd-funded effort to build a border wall between the US and Mexico. Although, he has not been charged with any wrongdoing in connection with GTV.

The fourth alleged scheme of Guo has raised $500 million from retail investors, as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) noted in a separate civil complaint. This scheme was an unrelated crypto venture called H-Coin, or Himalaya Coin.

Earlier in October 2021, the Chinese businessman founded and promoted H-Coin. He told his social media followers that the currency was 20% backed by gold and promised to cover “100% of investment losses attributable to H-Coin.” Then in February 2022, he filed for bankruptcy protection and claimed “assets valued between $50,000 and $100,000 and liabilities of up to $500 million.”

Despite his claims of poverty, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced yesterday that it seized more than $630 million of alleged fraud proceeds. These were seized from 21 different bank accounts controlled by the Chinese businessman between September 2022 and March 2023. Notably, his US legal troubles are not his first as in 2014 he fled his native China in anticipation of fraud charges, and became a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party.