Debatable exiled Chinese language billionaire Guo Wengui â an affiliate of former Trump White Space marketing consultant Steve Bannon â used to be arrested Wednesday in New York for allegedly orchestrating a fancy $1 billion fraud scheme that duped on-line fans with guarantees of oversized funding returns.
Guo allegedly used one of the cash raised thru his corporate GTV Media and different entities to shop for a 50,000-square foot New Jersey mansion, a $37 luxurious yacht, a $3.5 million Ferrari for his son, a $140,000 Bosendorfer piano and two Hasten 2000T mattresses that value a whopping $36,000 apiece.
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Prosecutors seized greater than $650 million in alleged fraud proceeds from 21 other financial institution accounts and belongings that incorporated a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roadster car as a part of the case in opposition to Guo and his monetary marketing consultant William Je in Long island federal courtroom.
Guo is because of seem in courtroom Wednesday afternoon.
The Securities and Trade Fee one at a time filed a comparable civil grievance in opposition to Guo, 52, and Je, a resident of the UK and Hong Kong who stays at massive. The SEC accuses Guo and Je of involvement in unregistered and fraudulent monetary choices.
The SEC one at a time accused Guo of constructing misrepresentations in elevating loads of hundreds of thousands of bucks from traders thru a cryptocurrency asset referred to as H-Coin. Ultimate September, 3 corporations related to Guo, together with GTV Media, agreed to pay just about $540 million to settle civil allegations by way of the SEC of constructing unlawful choices of inventory and virtual belongings.
Guo, who is understood by way of more than one other names, together with Miles Guo and Miles Kwok,” Brother Seven, and The Primary, has lived in the USA since 2015 after fleeing China, reportedly to duck looming corruption fees.
In 2018, he based two nonprofit organizations, the Rule of Regulation Basis and the Rule of Regulation Society, which engaged in a public members of the family marketing campaign in opposition to the Chinese language Communist Birthday celebration.
Guo “used the nonprofit organizations to accumulate fans who had been aligned together with his purported coverage targets in China and who had been additionally susceptible to imagine [Guo’s} statements regarding investment and money-making opportunities,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a statement on the criminal case.
Bannon, who served former President Donald Trump as senior White House advisor for less than a year, at one point was on the board of directors of the Rule of Law Society.
In June 2021, Guo’s two non-profits hosted a private party in New York attended by Bannon, former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn, and the Trump ally and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow.
In August 2020, federal authorities arrested Bannon on a mega-yacht belonging to Guo off the coast of Connecticut on charges related to siphoning off money for the “We Build the Wall” fundraising campaign. Months later, shortly before Trump left office, he pardoned Bannon in that case.
A 12-count grand jury criminal indictment unsealed Wednesday alleges that Guo and Je “conspired to defraud thousands of victims” in the scheme, which spanned from 2018 to this month.
The alleged conspiracy involved the use of different entities and programs to obtain investments from the victims, who were deceived by misrepresentations and false statements, prosecutors said.
“Kwok lied to his victims and promised them outsized returns if they invested, or provided money to, GTV [Media] his so-called Himalaya Farm Alliance, G|CLUBS, and the Himalaya Trade,” prosecutors stated in a press unlock.
Guo and Je are charged with twine fraud, securities fraud, financial institution fraud, and cash laundering. Je is also charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly seeking to switch cash associated with the conspiracy to the United Arab Emirates since ultimate September.
Each Guo and Je face conceivable sentences of as much as twenty years in jail if convicted within the prison case.
Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s enforcement department, referred to as Guo “a serial fraudster, who raised greater than $850 million by way of promising traders oversized returns on purported crypto, era and comfort excellent funding alternatives.”
“If truth be told, Guo took benefit of the hype and attract surrounding crypto and different investments to victimize 1000’s and fund his and his circle of relatives’s lavish way of life,” Grewal stated.
The SEC’s grievance stated that one instance of Guo and Je’s alleged fraud used to be a non-public placement providing of commonplace inventory in GTV Media Crew.
“Guo and Je allegedly diverted $100 million of investor price range to a hedge fund for the only advantage of an organization this is owned by way of Guo’s son,” the SEC stated.
And Guo allegedly misappropriated investor proceeds in two different choices to pay greater than $40 million to shop for and renovate the New Jersey mansion, and to shop for the Ferrari for his son, the SEC stated.