Exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui was found guilty Tuesday in his trial of defrauding investors as part of a colossal fraud.
Jurors heard how victims were drawn to Guo, a longtime ally of former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon, by his self-styled crusade to bring down the Chinese Communist Party—which at one point even saw him announce the formation of a New Federal State of China.
Instead, their millions were pumped into sundry schemes, from cryptocurrencies to club memberships, funding not only plush mansions and fast cars but also, prosecutors alleged, multiple entities set up by Guo and Bannon.
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After falling foul of the Chinese regime in 2015, Guo—variously known as Ho Wan Kwok, Miles Guo, and Miles Kwok—moved to New York and quickly set about establishing a new network of high-powered political contacts. By the time Trump formally took office in January 2017, the billionaire had become a member of Mar-a-Lago and later applied for political asylum after publicly accusing senior Chinese officials of graft.
“Is Miles Guo a real political activist or not? I don’t know, I don’t care, and neither should you,” assistant U.S. attorney Juliana Murray told a federal jury last week.
It was on Guo’s multimillion-dollar yacht that Bannon was arrested in 2020 for allegedly defrauding donors to his We Build the Wall initiative. Trump pardoned Bannon during the last few hours of his presidency, though the former White House adviser still faces related state charges in New York and began a four-month prison sentence this month for contempt of Congress.
Following Guo’s own arrest last March, details soon emerged of several investment vehicles used as part of his scheme, as well as branches of a sprawling media operation used by Guo and Bannon to cast themselves as anti-Communist heroes and spread misinformation about, among other things, the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nor was Bannon the only political figure to have been caught up in proceedings against Guo. Other names featured in court documents included George Santos, Donald Trump Jr., and ex-White House trade adviser Peter Navarro.
While Guo’s sentencing is set for Nov. 19, it remains to be seen whether he will follow Bannon to prison. The New York Times reported that there is a “remote possibility” the billionaire may be extradited back to China.
