new yorkAP —
A self-exiled billionaire Chinese businessman once considered one of China’s richest men was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the United States on Monday by a federal judge for a massive financial fraud that cost more than 1,000 people around the world hundreds of millions of dollars.
Guo Wengui, who defected from China a decade ago and made a fresh start as a U.S.-based Communist Party critic, was sentenced by Judge Annalisa Torres in a Manhattan courtroom packed with supporters. She said he “exploited people trying to bring democracy to China” and took their money to live a life of luxury.
Before the sentence was handed down, Guo said he was taken to a hospital early Monday morning to protest his treatment in prison. He disputed that prosecutors portrayed him as a fraudster who pretended to be ill, and said he repeatedly vomited while being returned to custody before being brought to court.
“When I came here, I said, ‘My stomach hurts, I need to go to the bathroom, I don’t feel well,'” Guo said through an interpreter when he arrived at the courthouse. Afterwards, Guo wiped his mouth repeatedly with a tissue.
He only briefly mentioned the criminal case and defended his intentions by referring to the Chinese Communist Party and saying, “The reason I came to the United States was to destroy the Chinese Communist Party.”
During his sentencing, the judge read out some of the letters he received from the victims, in which they described losing their savings, feeling extreme anxiety and shame, and being blamed by their families for poor investment choices.
Torres said Guo “takes no responsibility for his actions and incredibly maintains that his actions did not cause any loss and did not harm anyone.” “He called on his supporters to harass and intimidate those who dare to speak out against them,” he said.
The judge ordered Guo to forfeit $889 million in compensation.
Victim Wei Chen, who testified at the trial, told Torres that Guo’s fraud had “destroyed my life and the lives of my family.”
After the verdict, Guo’s supporters applauded and shouted as he left the courtroom.
Before being arrested and detained without bail three years ago, Mr. Guo became very close to conservative political strategist Steve Bannon, and in 2020 announced a joint initiative to overthrow the Chinese government. Mr. Guo lived in a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park and attended President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida.
Prosecutors had asked for at least 30 years in prison for his “astonishing” fraud between 2018 and 2023, which “destroyed hundreds of lives” and left behind “financially, emotionally and spiritually devastated victims and their families.”
Prosecutors said in court documents that his ill-gotten wealth fueled an “extraordinarily extravagant and extravagant lifestyle, a gilded lifestyle of mansions, yachts, race cars, designer clothes and high-end furniture.”
Mr. Guo was found guilty on nine of 12 criminal charges after a seven-week trial, which prosecutors said proved he defrauded thousands of investors with bogus deals that enabled him to live a lavish lifestyle.
Guo’s lawyers said in a court filing that he was the victim of a “massive, pervasive and life-threatening” pursuit by the Chinese Communist Party. They claimed the party assembled America’s business, entertainment and political elites in a conspiracy against him.
They said in court documents that long prison sentences would only legitimize China’s smear campaign and “intensify further efforts to remove Chinese dissidents from public life,” while defendants in similar cases have been sentenced to two to four years in prison.
Lawyers said the court’s probation officer sent a letter to the sentencing judge, pointing out that Guo, also known as Miles Guo and Ho Wan Kwok, had scars and disfigurement from physical torture he suffered in China and subsequent surgeries to repair his wounds.
Lawyers said Mr. Guo’s wealth grew as his family became the largest shareholders in China’s largest publicly traded securities company, but that Mr. Guo was targeted for exposing corruption among Chinese government officials. Mr. Guo eventually moved to Hong Kong, London and New York in 2017, his lawyers wrote.
Chinese authorities have accused him of rape, kidnapping and bribery, but Guo said those charges were false.
Prosecutors say Guo persuaded hundreds of thousands of people to invest more than $1 billion in companies he controlled, including his media company GTV Media Group and the so-called Himalaya Farm Alliance and Himalaya Exchange.
Mr. Guo had “absolutely no remorse” for his crimes, the government alleges in court papers, after taking advantage of America’s lax asylum laws to prosper in the country.
