Exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, an associate of former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, was arrested by federal authorities in New York on Wednesday morning on charges of orchestrating a billion-dollar fraud scheme, officials announced. prosecutors.
Guo, accused in court documents as Ho Wan Kwok and who also goes by Miles Guo and Miles Kwok, was charged with 12 counts including wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering in an indictment unsealed Wednesday, the The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a press release.
On the same day news of his arrest broke, Guo’s New York City apartment was found on fire, a source familiar with the matter said. The FBI had to be evacuated during the search for him when the fire broke out, after he was already in custody, the source said.
US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that Guo had led a complex conspiracy to defraud thousands of his online followers out of more than $1 billion.
Guo, along with his alleged co-conspirator Kin Ming Je, also known as William Je, are accused of leveraging Guo’s online presence to solicit investment in various companies and programs «promising enormous financial and other benefits,» they said. The prosecutors. They then misappropriated hundreds of millions of dollars of fraudulently obtained funds, which Guo allegedly used on a lavish lifestyle.
“Kwok is accused of lining his pockets with the money he stole, including purchasing for himself and his close relatives a 50,000-square-foot mansion, a $3.5 million Ferrari and even two $36,000 mattresses, and financing a $36,000 yacht. $37 million luxury,” Williams said.
Kin Ming Je, Guo’s financier, was also charged in the indictment, charged with another count of obstruction of justice, and has yet to be arrested.
Information from Guo and Kin Ming Je’s lawyer was not immediately available on Wednesday.
The US government seized $634 million in alleged fraud proceeds from 21 different bank accounts, as well as assets purchased with the proceeds of the alleged fraud, including a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roads, prosecutors said.
jonathan dienst contributed.