Exiled Chinese entrepreneur Guo Wengui, sentenced to 30 years in prison by a New York federal court for defrauding thousands of people of more than a billion dollars, has appealed, according to a court document consulted by AFP on Wednesday.
His appeal concerns both the sentence handed down on June 29 and the trial verdict in July 2024, at the end of which a jury unanimously found him guilty of fraud and various securities frauds, electronic fraud and money laundering.
The 55-year-old was also “ordered to give up $889 million from his illegal activities, as well as his rights to certain assets, including a $26.5 million mansion located in New Jersey” and three luxury cars.
Also known under the names Ho Wan Kwok and Miles Guo, he was accused of having taken advantage of his Internet notoriety to encourage thousands of people to invest in his companies or projects, which promised profitable investments or luxury services, but above all would have allowed him to live in style, according to American justice.
He was arrested by the federal police (FBI) in his luxury Manhattan apartment in March 2023.
His former collaborator Yvette Wang was sentenced to 10 years in prison last year for her role in this fraud.
Guo Wengui, who made his fortune in real estate, moved to the United States in 2015, fleeing China where he was the subject of an Interpol red notice for financial fraud that he denies.
Since his golden exile in New York, he presented himself as a fierce critic of the Chinese regime and a fervent defender of democracy, while maintaining links with the sulphurous figure of the American right Steve Bannon.
Together, they formed a lobby opposing the Chinese Communist Party: the New Federal State of China.
Mr. Bannon was arrested in August 2020 on the Chinese businessman’s yacht, for an embezzlement case linked to the proposed wall against immigration on the Mexican border wanted by Donald Trump.
Guo Wengui made headlines again after his arrest, announcing his plan to organize an online auction of “unvaccinated sperm”, based on the conspiratorial idea that vaccines cause mass sterility.
