NEW YORK, June 30 — A self-exiled Chinese billionaire who once ranked among China’s wealthiest men received a 30-year federal prison sentence Monday for orchestrating a financial fraud that, according to the presiding judge, cost more than 1,000 people worldwide hundreds of millions of dollars. Guo Wengui fled China roughly a decade ago and reinvented himself in the United States as a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party. His sentence was handed down in a Manhattan courtroom packed with supporters.
U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres delivered the punishment, telling Guo he “preyed on those seeking to bring Democracy to China,” using their money to fund an extravagant personal lifestyle, according to court officials. Before sentencing, Guo protested his treatment while in jail.
He told the court he had been taken to the hospital earlier that morning and disputed a prosecutor’s characterization of him as malingering or faking illness. He insisted he had repeatedly vomited as he was transported back to jail before later being brought to court. “When I came here, I said: ‘I have a tummy ache, I need to go to the bathroom, I don’t feel well,’” Guo said through an interpreter, describing his arrival at the courthouse.
He wiped his mouth repeatedly with a tissue throughout the proceeding. Guo addressed the underlying criminal case only briefly.
He defended his motivations by framing his move to the United States in political terms. “The reason I came to the US was to destroy the CCP,” Guo said. In handing down the sentence, Judge Torres read excerpts from letters she had received from victims.
Those letters described people losing their life savings, experiencing severe anxiety and shame, and in some cases having family members turn against them over what those relatives viewed as poor investment decisions. Torres was sharply critical of Guo’s lack of contrition, according to the account from the proceeding. The source text for this report was cut off mid-sentence, leaving the judge’s full remarks on that point incomplete.
What remains clear is that the court viewed Guo’s fraud as one that reached across borders, drawing in victims from multiple countries who believed they were supporting a political cause.
