Chinese billionaire funding conservative social network GETTR arrested for crypto fraud

One of the most financially powerful men in Donald Trump’s orbit has just been charged by the United States with fraud.

Guo Wengui, a Chinese refugee living in the United States, was arrested(Opens in a new tab) Wednesday and hit with a string of wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering charges. The billionaire fled China in 2014 and has lived in New York. He has been sought by the Chinese government.

A major part of Guo’s alleged fraud was his Himalayan Exchange, a cryptocurrency “ecosystem,” which included a stablecoin called Himalayan Dollar and a cryptotoken called Himalayan Coin.

Guo had presented(Opens in a new tab) Himalayan Exchange as an opportunity for investors to make money and ruled the Chinese government via crypto. In reality, their investments, it seems, went directly into Guo’s bank accounts. Guo allegedly bilked his victims of $262 million under this scheme.

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

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 financial backer of the social network.

“Some of the first seed money has come from [Guo’s] family foundation,” Miller told the outlet at the time. Miller also claimed Guo was not a direct investor in the company.

However, according to indictment(Opens in a new tab) filed by the US Department of Justice, a large portion of Guo’s ill-gotten gains 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 been more integral to GETTR’s operations than the alleged fraudster has publicly allowed. According to The Daily Beast, a host on Guo’s own media outlet, GTV, claimed that GETTR was “the concentration of [Guo’s] the whole life’s work.” The GTV host even claimed that Guo had created GETTR’s torch logo.

Mashable has reached out to GETTR for comment and will update this article when we hear back.

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

A business partner of Guo’s, Kin Ming Je, was also indicted on Wednesday and was hit with a further charge of obstruction of justice.

“As alleged, Ho Wan Kwok, known to many as Miles Guo [and Guo Wengui]led to a complex conspiracy to defraud thousands of his online followers of over $1 billion,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

According to Williams, Guo used his fraudulent riches to buy himself and his close family members expensive luxuries such as “a 50,000-square-foot mansion, a $3.5 million Ferrari, and even two $36,000 mattresses, and finance a $37 million luxury yacht .”

As of the publication of this article, officials in New York investigating(Opens in a new tab) a fire that broke out at the hotel where Guo was arrested earlier Wednesday morning.