Self-exiled Chinese businessman's chief of staff gets 10 years in prison in $1B fraud

Audio By Carbonatix

NEW YORK (AP) — The chief of staff for a Chinese businessman sought by the government of China was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison for her role in the $1 billion fraud case.

Yvette Wang, 45, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court less than two years after her arrest in March 2023, when FBI agents found $130,000 of cash in a safe in her Manhattan apartment.

Judge Analisa Torres said Wang was an “integral part of the conspiracy” carried out by Guo Wengui, who was convicted at a July trial and awaits sentencing.

Wang also agreed to forfeit $1.4 billion as part of her May guilty plea to conspiracy charges.

Guo was convicted of defrauding hundreds of thousands of followers in the U.S. and around the world of over $1 billion.

Prosecutors said Wang, along with Guo and others, carried out the fraud from 2018 through March 2023.

At her plea, Wang admitted to conspiring with Guo and others to commit wire fraud and money laundering by giving false information to induct victims to send money through entities and organizations including Guo’s media company, GTV Media Group Inc., and his so-called Himalaya Farm Alliance and the Himalaya Exchange, in return for stock or cryptocurrency.

Without the plea, she could have faced life in prison if she was convicted at trial.

Guo was once believed to be among the richest people in China. In 2014, he left during an anti-corruption crackdown led by President Xi Jinping that ensnared people close to Guo, including a top intelligence official.

Since then, he has been highly sought by that nation’s government, relying on the U.S. for protection as Chinese authorities accused him of rape, kidnapping, bribery and other offenses. He has long argued that those claims were false, saying they were meant to punish him for publicly outing corruption there and criticizing key Communist Party figures.

While living in New York as a fugitive, he became an outspoken critic of the ruling Communist Party and developed a close relationship with Steve Bannon, President-elect Donald Trump’s former political strategist. Guo and Bannon in 2020 announced the founding of a joint initiative they said was aimed at overthrowing the Chinese government.