US arrests Chinese billionaire after ex-Trump aide

The US Department of Justice this Wednesday (15.Mar.2023) arrested Chinese billionaire Ho Wan Kuok, also known as Guo Wengui, accused of profiting off US$1 billion in a fraud scheme. Here it is Notice US Government Official (677 KB, in English).

Damian Williams, one of the prosecutors in the case, reported that between September 2022 and March 2023, the United States seized approximately $634 million from 21 bank accounts. The amount comes from Wenguin’s illegal scheme.

This Wednesday (March 15), US police seized luxury cars and other items bought with fraudulent money.

According to attorney Williams, Guo Wengui lied to his Internet followers. He said that if he invests in media companies and his related businesses like GVT, they will earn huge amount of money. The company was previously fined millions of dollars by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for illegally selling stocks and digital assets.

Prosecutors allege that Guo and some of his relatives used fraudulent money to buy a mansion, a Ferrari worth US$3.5 million and finance a US$37 million yacht.

Guo Wengui was deported from China and has been living in the United States since 2015.

According to The New York Times, Guo Wengui is on China’s federal fugitive list on charges of bribery, fraud and money laundering. The billionaire, a critic of the Chinese Communist Party, denies it. According to the North American newspaper, Wengui has a close relationship with Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser and former strategist for Donald Trump.

On August 20, 2020, Steve Bannon was were detained on charges of money laundering and fraud for allegedly embezzling more than US$15 million in privately funded construction of a section of the US border wall with Mexico.

Propaganda “We Built That Wall” (We built the wall in Portuguese) Hundreds of thousands of people donated $25 million. At the time of the arrest, Bannon He On a boat belonging to Guo Wengui.

In October 2022, the former Trump strategist was sentenced to 4 months in prison for contempt of the US Congress.