Chinese billionaire funding conservative social network GETTR arrested for crypto fraud

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One of the richest men in Donald Trump’s orbit has just been indicted by the United States for fraud.

Guo Wengui, a Chinese fugitive living in the United States, was arrested on Wednesday and hit with a series of charges of wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. The billionaire fled China in 2014 and lives in New York. He is wanted by the Chinese government.

A significant part of Guo’s alleged fraud was his Himalayan Exchange, a cryptocurrency “ecosystem” that included a stablecoin dubbed the Himalayan Dollar and a crypto token called Himalaya Coin.

SEE ALSO: Crypto and other online scams took over $10 billion from victims in 2022

Guo had touted(Opens in a new tab) Himalayan Exchange as an opportunity for investors to make money and overthrow the Chinese government via crypto. In reality, their investments reportedly went straight into Guo’s bank accounts. Guo allegedly stole $262 million from his victims in the scheme.

Since arriving in the United States, Guo has been associated with conservative political figures.

In July 2021, former Trump administration communications director Jason Miller launched a brand new alternative social media platform for conservatives called GETTR. Shortly after, a report (Opens in a new tab) from The Daily Beast revealed that Guo was a major funder of the social network.

“Some of the initial seed money comes from [Guo’s] family foundation,” Miller said at the time. Miller also claimed that Guo was not a direct investor in the company.

However, according to the indictment (Opens in a new tab) filed by the US Department of Justice, much of Guo’s ill-gotten funds were held in a bank account in the name of “GETTR USA, Inc.” .

Authorities seized a total of $634 million from 21 different bank accounts containing the proceeds of the alleged fraud. Of this amount, more than $2.7 million was held in the GETTR account.

Guo may also have had a bigger role in GETTR’s operations than the alleged fraudster has publicly let on. According to The Daily Beast, a host from Guo’s own outlet, GTV, claimed that GETTR was “the focus of [Guo’s] life’s work.” The GTV host even claimed that Guo created GETTR’s torch logo.

Mashable has reached out to GETTR for comment and will update this article when we have a response.

Guo also struck up a relationship with former President Trump’s political strategist in 2016, Steve Bannon, as both are top critics of China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party. In fact, when Bannon was arrested by authorities for fraud in August 2020, it was on Guo’s yacht that he was apprehended.

A Guo business partner, Kin Ming Je, was also indicted on Wednesday and slapped with an additional charge of obstruction of justice.

“As alleged, Ho Wan Kwok, known to many as Miles Guo [and Guo Wengui]carried out a complex conspiracy to defraud thousands of its online subscribers out of more than $1 billion,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

According to Williams, Guo used his fraudulently acquired wealth to buy himself and his immediate family members expensive luxuries such as a “50,000 square foot mansion, a $3.5 million Ferrari and even two $36,000 mattresses, and the financing of a $37 million luxury yacht.”

As of this writing, officials in New York are investigating a fire that broke out at the hotel where Guo was arrested earlier Wednesday morning.

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