Guo Wengui Sentenced to 30 Years in US Prison for $1 Billion Crypto-Linked Fraud

• A Manhattan federal judge sentenced self-exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui to 30 years in prison for a fraud scheme that raised more than $1 billion, partly through his Himalaya Exchange crypto platform.
• Guo, convicted in July 2024 on nine of twelve criminal counts, was ordered to forfeit $889 million in restitution.
• His former chief of staff, Yvette Wang, was separately sentenced to 10 years in January 2025.

A federal judge in Manhattan sentenced Guo Wengui, the self-exiled Chinese billionaire and Communist Party critic, to 30 years in U.S. prison on Monday. The fraud scheme he ran raised more than $1 billion from followers worldwide, including through a cryptocurrency exchange he controlled.

U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres handed down the sentence at a Manhattan federal court in a case prosecutors said ran from 2018 to 2023. Guo is also known as Ho Wan Kwok, Miles Guo, and Miles Kwok. He was convicted in July 2024 on nine of twelve criminal counts, including wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud, money laundering and racketeering conspiracy. Torres also ordered him to forfeit $889 million in restitution. The sentence follows the 10-year prison term handed to his former chief of staff, Yvette Wang, in January 2025.

Torres said Guo “preyed on those seeking to bring democracy to China,” using their money to fund an extravagant lifestyle instead. Wei Chen, a victim who testified at trial, told the court the fraud had destroyed her life and the lives of her family members.

Prosecutors said Guo built a following as a U.S.-based critic of the Chinese Communist Party after fleeing China roughly a decade ago. He then used that profile to solicit money for ventures including GTV Media Group, the Himalaya Farm Alliance, the members-only G|CLUBS, and the Himalaya Exchange, a crypto-related trading platform.

Guo was a close associate of former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon. Bannon was arrested aboard Guo’s yacht in August 2020 on a separate fraud case before President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2021. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had noted the sentencing. The ministry added that Guo remains the subject of an Interpol Red Notice sought by Chinese authorities, who have accused him of rape, kidnapping and bribery, allegations Guo denies.

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Guo’s lawyers said in a court filing that he was the victim of the Chinese Communist Party’s “grand, pervasive, and life-threatening” pursuit of him. They noted that defendants in comparable cases received sentences of two to four years.

The case adds to a string of lengthy U.S. prison terms for crypto-linked fraud. It reinforces that running a token exchange or digital-asset venture does not shield a founder from securities, wire fraud, or money laundering charges. That holds once regulators establish the underlying conduct was fraudulent.

Editorial Note: This news article has been written with assistance from AI. Edited & fact-checked by the Editorial Team.

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