Guo Wengui is suspected of scamming thousands of individuals out of $1 billion through investment schemes
US arrests Chinese billionaire
FILE PHOTO: Guo Wengui in 2018. © DON EMMERT / AFP
The US government has charged fugitive Chinese businessman Guo Wengui with conspiracy to defraud investors. The tycoon allegedly scammed hundreds of thousands of online followers by luring them with his anti-Beijing rhetoric into investing money in his businesses, US officials say.
The indictments against the entrepreneur and business partner Kin Ming Je were unsealed on Wednesday. He was identified in legal papers under the name Ho Wan Kwok and five aliases, including ‘Brother Seven’, ‘The Principal’, but is best-known as Guo Wengui.
Both men were charged with wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering, while his business partner was additionally charged with obstruction of justice. They are facing several decades in prison.
Guo was arrested on Wednesday morning and pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan federal court. His associate remains at large.
The Chinese businessman “led a complex conspiracy to defraud thousands of his online followers out of over $1 billion dollars,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams stated.
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A vocal critic of the Chinese government, Guo resided in the US since around 2015. He used purported nonprofit organizations to spread his political messages to accumulate a substantial online following. He then exploited the trust that he gained to cheat his followers out of money with promises of “outsized” investment returns, according to the allegations.
Guo is also a business associate of Steve Bannon, a former adviser to ex-US President Donald Trump. The two were in the media business together. In 2020, Bannon was arrested on Guo’s yacht, the Lady May, in an unrelated fraud case. Trump pardoned Bannon in the last days of his presidency.
The charges against Guo echo those he faced in his home country, where he was a real estate mogul before leaving in 2014. The Chinese authorities accused him of bribery and embezzlement, and placed him on an international wanted list through Interpol in 2017. Guo claimed to be a whistleblower seeking to expose Beijing’s wrongdoings.
The prices of some life-saving medicines have soared to levels that are unaffordable for ordinary people in Venezuela as the United States has ramped up military presence in the Caribbean off Venezuela's coast, alongside escalating sanctions, blockades and military threats against the oil-rich South American nation since late August.
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At a northeastern suburb in the capital city Caracas, locals can still purchase most of the commonly used medicines at a major supermarket, where some antibiotics have been sold out, and some first-aid medicines and supplies have become too costly for ordinary residents.
"I'm here mainly to buy antibiotics. I have problems with my lungs. But I can't get all I want, such as vancomycin," said a resident named Alfonso.
"Recent tensions have affected the supplies and prices of drugs. The prices of cancer drugs, insulin drugs and albumin are very high, and most patients here cannot afford them," said Giovanna Gonzalez a ...
Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow is prepared to use military force to achieve the goals of its special military operation if Ukraine continues to delay peace talks.
During an inspection of a Russian armed forces command post on Saturday, Putin stressed that Moscow will not allow Kiev’s obstruction to prevent progress.
“If the Kiev authorities do not want to resolve the matter peacefully, we will accomplish all the tasks before us in the course of the special military operation by military means,” he said.
The Russian leader noted that the Ukrainian authorities are not moving toward a peaceful resolution, adding, “We see that even today, unfortunately, the leaders of the Kiev regime are in no hurry to resolve this conflict peacefully. I spoke about this a year ago in a speech at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
Putin also received reports from Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov and commanders of Russia’s “Centre” and “East” military groups.
Meanwhile, ...
