An exiled Chinese billionaire with business ties to former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon finds himself under arrest today in connection to a $1 billion fraud conspiracy.
Guo Wengui has been friends with Bannon for years and has spent much of that time on the FBI’s radar.
In a 12-count indictment, federal prosecutors say he orchestrated a complex scheme to bilk thousands of online supporters out of $1 billion, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle.
The charges against Guo include bank fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, as the Daily Beast reports:
According to authorities, Guo, 52, and co-conspirator Jin Ming Je, 56, misappropriated some $1 billion in “fraudulently obtained funds during the course of their conspiracy.” Guo allegedly used the money, for, among other things, a 50,000-square-foot New Jersey mansion, upkeep on a $37 million yacht, a $3.5 million Ferrari, Chinese and Persian rugs worth nearly $1 million, a $4.4 million Bugatti sports car, a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roads, a $62,000 television, a $53,000 fireplace log cradle holder, and two $36,000 mattresses.
The FBI on Wednesday did not return The Daily Beast’s request for comment, nor did Guo’s various right-wing allies. Bannon didn’t mention Guo’s arrest during the opening segment of his show.
Guo and Je, a dual citizen of Hong Kong and the U.K. who prosecutors believe was the alleged scheme’s “financial architect and key money launderer,” lied to investors about where their funds were going, according to court documents.
The feds say Guo used two nonprofits he founded in 2018, the Rule of Law Foundation and the Rule of Law Society “to amass followers who were aligned with his purported policy objectives in China and who were also inclined to believe [his] statements regarding investment and money-making opportunities.”
Federal agents previously boarded Guo’s yacht to arrest Bannon in August 2020.
Then-President Trump pardoned Bannon after he was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering in connection to the We Build the Wall campaign. In a matter of months, the campaign raised $25 million which partially went to constructing a three-mile section of border wall. The nonprofit said it hoped to construct 100 miles of border wall.
In August 2020, authorities charged U.S. Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, Bannon, venture capitalist Andrew Badolato and then-DEA Acting Administrator Timothy Shea for enriching themselves with over $1 million in donations, including $350,000 that went to Kolfage directly. All of the men faced felony charges.
Kolfage and Badolato pled guilty. Shea was convicted in October 2022 after his first trial ended in a hung jury. Trump issued a pardon for Bannon before his trial had ended.
Last summer, a jury found Bannon guilty of two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 Committee.
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If only they would put out just as much effort investigating the Biden crime, family, and the CCP.