A self-exiled Chinese billionaire, Guo Wengui once considered to be among China’s wealthiest businessmen, has been sentenced by a US federal court to 30 years in prison for a monumental scam. In 2017, the former property tycoon fled China to the US, where he transformed himself into a Communist Party critic and established a loyal following.
According to a federal judge, the recent scam cost over 1,000 people globally hundreds of millions of dollars.
In connection with this, Guo who goes by various names, including Miles Guo and Ho Wan Kwok was sentenced in a courtroom crowded with his supporters.
US attorney Sean S Buckley told the BBC: “ Rather than being satisfied with the many legitimate opportunities afforded to him, the trust that thousands had placed in him for his own greed.”
“Today’s sentence shows that fame and wealth do not place you above the law, and that fraudsters who victimise families to enrich themselves will be met with significant consequences,” Buckley added.
Guo built a fortune as a property developer and had a strong alliance with the country’s government. He sought asylum in the US after being threatened with corruption charges by top Chinese officials.
The judge sentenced him after evaluating excerpts of letters from victims, who described losing their life savings and feeling ashamed and having family members turn on them for their unsound investments.
Before his arrest three years ago, Guo was so close to Republican consultant Steve Bannon that they announced a collaborative initiative to overthrow the Chinese government in 2020.
Prosecutors said Guo raised more than $1 billion from online followers, who joined him in business agreements and cryptocurrency schemes between 2018 and 2023.
The money he capital secured it to fund Guo’s lavish lifestyle which included a 50,000 square foot mansion, and a $1 million Lamborghini and a $37m yacht.
Guo was found guilty of nine of 12 criminal charges during a seven-week trial that prosecutors said implicated thousands of investors in deceptive schemes that enabled Guo’s luxurious lifestyle.
The lawyers analyzed that a court probation officer wrote to the sentencing judge that Guo who is also known as Miles Guo and Ho Wan Kwok, had scars and mutilation from physical torture he endured in China, and additional surgeries he underwent from 1993 to 2022 to repair the injuries.
Bannon was arrested on Guo’s yacht in Connecticut and was charged in a fraud case in a scheme to defraud people who funded a not for profit company to build a US-Mexico border wall. Notably, he entered a guilty plea in a Manhattan court to a first-degree scheme to defraud charge and received a conditional discharge for three years.
Additionally, he faced federal charges over the border wall campaign after he was accused by a federal grand jury, but the prosecution reportedly dropped after Trump acquitted him in the final hours of his first White House term.
