A superseding indictment against Steve Bannon’s embattled sugar daddy alleges that multiple outfits the duo co-founded—as well as ill-starred social media app Gettr—were part of a criminal consortium that bilked Chinese dissidents living abroad.
The new details come out of an updated criminal complaint against Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who caught charges last year for allegedly defrauding his followers with a bogus crypto scheme and using their money to buy a mansion, a yacht, multiple foreign-built luxury vehicles, ornamental rugs, and even a “$53,000 fireplace log cradle holder.”
The new document, filed on Wednesday, for the first time lists dozens of entities that the Department of Justice alleges formed part of the “Kwok Enterprise,” named for one of Guo’s alter egos, Ho Wan “Miles” Kwok.
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This list features several investment vehicles and various arms of the sprawling multilingual media operation Guo and Bannon used to depict themselves and their allies as messianic crusaders against the Chinese Communist Party—as well as companies connected to the “farm” network that The Daily Beast reported in 2021 amassed money from supporters for dubious investments. But perhaps the most notable name of all those is Gettr—the “free speech” social media platform formerly helmed by Trump advisor Jason Miller and which The Daily Beast revealed shortly after its launch was funded by Guo, and the twin nonprofits the Rule of Law Foundation and Rule of Law Society.
Bannon launched the two similarly named groups with Guo in 2019 for the ostensible purpose of revealing abuses by Beijing—but they quickly turned toward spreading misinformation, including about the origins of COVID-19. Bannon, who has not been charged in the case and whose spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has since formally stepped away from the two groups.
But the revised indictment also lists another operation which the former White House chief strategist midwifed into existence—the New Federal State of China, a putative shadow government for a future democratic China which Bannon and Guo announced from the deck of a boat in New York Harbor in 2020. This entity for a time even operated an ersatz embassy in Manhattan where the pair reportedly maintained offices.
“The defendants and entities set forth in paragraph 3a., together with others known and unknown, were members and associates of a criminal organization (the ‘Kwok Enterprise’) that engaged in criminal activity, to include wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, and securities fraud,” the charging document reads directly under the list. “The Kwok Enterprise constituted an ongoing organization whose members functioned as a continuing unit for the common purpose of achieving the objectives of the enterprise.”
The complaint does not describe specifically how each of these entities assisted Guo’s alleged conspiracy “to defraud thousands of victims of more than approximately $1 billion.” The document largely reiterates previous fraud claims, while rolling two prior international money-laundering charges into a single conspiracy accusation.
Gettr did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
