Guo Wengui: How a Chinese tycoon built a pro-Trump money machine
An exiled Chinese billionaire has now been been found guilty of multiple charges, including fraud and money laundering. Here's a look into how Guo Wengui, who built up a real estate empire in China, went on to run a billion dollar scam in the US.
2024-07-17 13:21:33 - VI News Staff
early June 2020, at the tail end of the city's first Covid lockdown, a fleet of small planes baffled New Yorkers. They circled overhead towing banners that read: "Congratulations to the New Federal State of China" and flew an unfamiliar-looking blue flag. Was it a prank? A stunt? Weird propaganda? The mystery was solved a few days later when Guo and former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon appeared live online.
Together on a boat near the Statue of Liberty, with the same blue flag in the background, they awkwardly took turns speaking to the camera. "We must eliminate Marxism-Leninism, the pariah and totalitarian regime of the Chinese Communist Party," Guo declared.
It was the latest collaboration between the two men, who built large networks of online followers based on their shared obsessions: opposition to China's rulers, fealty to the Trump wing of the Republican Party, and conspiracy theories about Covid and vaccines. Four years after that livestream, Guo was found guilty on nine out of the 12 criminal counts he faced, including racketeering, fraud and money laundering.