Chinese businessman with ties to Steve Bannon arrested on fraud charges

Guo Wengui, a Chinese businessman with ties to former Trump White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon, was arrested Wednesday as federal prosecutors unsealed a 12-count indictment alleging he defrauded his online followers out of more than $1 billion.

Prosecutors allege that Guo - formally charged as Ho Wan Kwok and known as “Miles Guo” - spent some of the money on a mansion, a $3.5 million Ferrari and a $37 million yacht.

In August 2020, federal authorities arrested Bannon off the coast of Connecticut on a yacht belonging to Guo, alleging that he fleeced donors to a nonprofit group that claimed it was building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon pleaded not guilty and was later pardoned by President Donald Trump.

The indictment, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges that Guo and a co-conspirator led a “complex” conspiracy that fraudulently raised funds from thousands of online follows and investors through various endeavors, including GTV, a sprawling network of media websites and social media accounts that have been found to spread misinformation about coronavirus remedies and the 2020 election.

Prosecutors allege Gui solicited funds through an illegal stock offering; from late April to early June 2020, he raised $452 million from more than 5,500 investors. Guo and his alleged co-conspirator, Kin Ming Je, directed $100 million of that money to a “high-risk hedge fund” that benefited GTV’s parent company and its owner, one of Guo’s close relatives, according to prosecutors.

Guo announced in 2020 that Bannon had been named chairman of GTV. But he was removed from the position after his arrest, Guo told The Washington Post later that year. At the time, Guo said Bannon didn’t play a part in raising money for the company.

Bannon had extensive ties to Guo, The Post has reported, developed between their apparent shared ideology on politics in China. The Post reported in 2020 that there were signs the federal government was investigating Guo’s financial activities in the country.

Guo has been an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party and fled China after he was accused of bribery and other crimes there.

“Miles Guo has been the toughest Chinese opponent the CCP has ever encountered,” Bannon said in a statement to The Post in 2020.

The pair also said in the past that they would launch charities together, and Guo previously gave Bannon a consulting contract with one of his companies. Guo has been known for his lavish lifestyle in China, and later in New York, building a skyscraper in Beijing and living in a $67 million penthouse near Central Park.

In addition to the charges related to GTV, prosecutors allege that Guo fraudulently took in $150 million in funds through a loan program called the “Himalaya Farm Alliance” and that Guo and co-conspirators fraudulently raised roughly $250 million from a supposed online membership club called “G|CLUBS.”