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Longtime Bannon Associate Miles Guo Hit With Racketeering Charges

Longtime Bannon Associate Miles Guo Hit With Racketeering Charges

Multiple organizations tied to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon were listed for the first time in a superseding indictment against his longtime associate Miles Guo, a Chinese businessman facing a litany of charges in the Southern District of New York.

The ties between Guo and Bannon have long been known, but the new court document provides additional clarity about Guo’s alleged conspiracy, which the indictment says defrauded victims of approximately $1 billion. It could also signal increased legal exposure for Bannon, who has been financially intertwined with Guo since at least 2018.

The updated indictment alleges that Guo — also known as Guo Wengui and Ho Wan Kwok — used social media company Gettr, media outlet G News, the supposed government-in-exile New Federal State of China in a conspiracy to defraud his victims and furnish his lavish lifestyle.

Bannon is linked with each of these organizations, none of which were listed as directly implicated entities in the original indictment.

Most significantly, Bannon has long been a champion of Gettr, a far-right competitor to X (formerly known as Twitter). The Washington Post reported that Bannon’s War Room podcast had received $50,000 from Gettr as late as December 2022.

“One of the things about Miles, in my time of knowing him — just the, you know, the music, the fashion, G News, GTV, association with Gettr, all these things you see popping off has been such successes really in such a short period of time,” Bannon said in a November 17, 2021, interview on Guo’s GTV.

That was just one of many instances where Bannon hyped Guo’s G News and its related media property GTV.

“G News and GTV, great article today, comes out that GTV, Miles Guo, Steve Bannon, saving western civilization,” Bannon said. “Hey, I don’t know if I’d go that far but let’s say this: I’m so proud of G News and GTV for stepping up.”

Their alliance extended beyond media ventures and into the realm of political organizing. In June 2020, Guo and Bannon jointly launched the New Federal State of China, billed as an initiative to counter the Chinese government. As Media Matters reported following Guo’s initial indictment, Bannon praised the New Federal State of China and other Guo properties in a joint panel appearance the following year.

“The New Federal State, the whistleblower movement, the Rule of Law Society and Foundation, Gettr, G Fashion, all this — what the world is seeing is a new China and a new Chinese,” Bannon said.

Following the announcement of the initial indictment, Media Matters reported that Bannon promoted Guo’s cryptocoin and exchange platform, which the SDNY alleges were central to the Chinese businessman’s scheme.

Bannon also served on the board of the nonprofit Rule of Law Society — founded by Guo — but left at some point in the summer of 2020, and agreed to serve as chairman of Guo’s Rule of Law Fund. Like the New Federal State of China, both initiatives were aimed at undermining the Chinese government.

In August 2020 Bannon was arrested on Guo’s superyacht by the U.S. Postal Service for alleged fraud connected to a scheme to build a wall at the U.S. southern border. The trial is set for May of this year in New York state court. (As one of former President Donald Trump’s last acts in office, he pardoned Bannon on related federal charges.)

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Steve Bannon

Report: Justice Department Probing Bannon Role In Guo's Alleged Frauds

A new report in Mother Jones cites sources that claim Steve Bannon is being investigated for playing a role behind the scenes advising his longtime associate Ho Wan Kwok, also known as Miles Guo, on his allegedly fraudulent schemes. Guo was arrested after being charged with 12 counts of fraud, financial crimes, and obstruction of justice by the Southern District of New York for his role overseeing a wide-ranging conspiracy of fraudulent ventures totalling over $1 billion.

Bannon publicly promoted these allegedly fraudulent schemes on multiple occasions. In one instance, Bannon endorsed a cryptocoin called H Coin and its associated exchange, calling their launch “monumental” and part of the “institutionalization of the counteroffensive to the Chinese Communist Party.”

According to the indictment, Guo and others “fraudulently obtained more than approximately $262 million in victim funds through the Himalaya Exchange.”

Mother Jones quotes sources who had been contacted by FBI and SEC agents and “asked for details on Bannon’s role advising Guo on soliciting investment funds in 2020.” Sources also say Bannon “privately advised” Guo and his alleged co-conspirator on GTV and so-called “G|Clubs.” The SDNY release describes how Guo “touted” GTV as a “wide-ranging media company,” and made “false representations regarding how the money raised” from investors “would be used.” Investors were told that the “G|Clubs” would “provide participants with the opportunity to buy discounted stock in other Guo ventures.” Guo and his co-conspirator Kin Ming Je “misappropriated hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulently obtained funds,” according to the SDNY.

According to Mother Jones:

Still, Bannon gave vital assistance to Guo’s operation. The former top aide to Donald Trump not only publicly cheered on companies that Guo allegedly used to rip off fans, but also privately advised Guo on how to solicit investments in those companies.

FBI and SEC agents, who are still investigating Guo’s capers, have sought information about Bannon’s work for the Chinese mogul, according to two people contacted by agents. One source said that agents asked for details on Bannon’s role advising Guo on soliciting investment funds in 2020.

Starting in the spring of 2020, Guo raised hundreds of millions of dollars by offering backers a chance to invest in what Guo said was a private offering of shares in GTV. Information sent to potential investors named Bannon as a member of GTV’s board.

Bannon also played a larger role than was publicly known in the GTV offering, people familiar with the effort told Mother Jones. These sources said that Bannon privately advised Guo, Je, and others on the GTV offering. Bannon also provided advice on a follow-up venture called G|Clubs, sources said. Guo claimed that membership in this club —which cost between $10,000 and $50,000—would provide participants with the opportunity to buy discounted stock in other Guo ventures. Prosecutors said that members actually received “few to no discernible membership benefits.”

In 2020, Bannon was arrested by postal service agents for his own separate fraudulent scheme on Guo’s yacht, which, according to the SDNY, itself was financed through Guo’s alleged fraud.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Guo and Bannon

Bannon Repeatedly Promoted Alleged Scams By Indicted Partner Guo (VIDEO)

Several newly resurfaced videos show former Trump adviser Steve Bannon promoting allegedly fraudulent schemes perpetrated by his longtime associate and former financial backer Miles Guo, also known as Ho Wan Kwok and Guo Wengui.

Federal prosecutors arrested Guo on Wednesday on allegations that he ran a sprawling $1 billion fraud and money laundering scam, according to an unsealed indictment released the same day. Shortly after the news broke, Media Matters reported that Bannon had promoted some of the elements of Guo’s scheme that were included in the indictment.

Guo’s alleged wide-ranging conspiracy included a faux-cryptocurrency “ecosystem” called Himalaya Exchange, including a digital asset called H Coin. Unlike most cryptocurrencies, the coins in Himalaya Exchange weren’t tradable with other digital currencies unless they were first converted to U.S. dollars — requests which the platform could deny at its “discretion” — according to the indictment. Guo also ran a suite of media properties, including a broadcast service called GTV, which he used to allegedly defraud investors through selling stock in the company and pocketing the deposits, rather than investing them in the business.

The new videos raise further questions about Bannon’s potential involvement in Guo’s activities. In a video published November 17, 2021, Bannon promoted Himalaya Exchange and H Coin, shortly after the coin was publicly offered.

“I think the H Coin team and the Himalaya Exchange team is to be congratulated,” Bannon said. “I believe it’s the first time anybody's ever — in 2 weeks, we have $27 billion of market cap.”

Bannon then went on to praise a laundry list of Guo’s ventures, several of which are included in the indictment.

“One of the things about Miles, in my time of knowing him — just the, you know, the music, the fashion, GNews, GTV, association with Gettr, all these things you see popping off has been such successes really in such a short period of time,” Bannon said.

Last April, Guo allegedly illegally transferred $37 million from Himalaya Exchange to cover costs of his personal luxury yacht. Postal service agents arrested Bannon on Guo’s yacht in August 2020, for allegations of defrauding investors in the failed “We Build the Wall” scam.

Two other videos come from a panel discussion in September 2021, that included Guo, Bannon, former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, and former Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller. At the time of the event, Miller was CEO of Twitter competitor Gettr, another project backed by Guo. As part of the investigation against Guo, authorities seized over $2.7 million from a Gettr bank account in September 2022, according to the indictment. This February, Miller resigned from Gettr to join Trump’s 2024 campaign.

The panel discussion was in celebration of Guo and Bannon’s joint venture called the New Federal State of China, a rebranding of the so-called whistleblowers movement. Bannon hoped the NFSC would become a “government in exile” that could seize power once the Chinese Communist Party was destroyed, a goal he and Guo shared.

“No matter what the CCP does, it’s impossible to take down this movement,” Bannon said. “The whistleblower movement, the New Federal State, the Rule of Law, GTV and G News — GTV and G News are five times bigger than a year ago.”

Guo founded two nonprofits — the Rule of Law Foundation and the Rule of Law Society — both of which are named in the indictment as vehicles he used in furtherance of the conspiracy. Bannon was on the board of the Rule of Law Society but reportedly resigned at some point in the summer of 2020.

Earlier in the panel, Bannon made many of the same points about Guo’s various projects.

“The New Federal State, the whistleblower movement, the Rule of Law Society and Foundation, Gettr, G Fashion, all this — what the world is seeing is a new China and a new Chinese,” Bannon said.

Although G Fashion is not mentioned in the indictment, another similarly branded company of Guo’s called G Clubs was allegedly a central pillar in the scheme to defraud investors.

Last June, the NFSC celebrated its second anniversary, and Bannon again promoted Guo’s ventures, praising “G Fashion and Gettr and all these different companies that have been brought together,” which also include “a news organization, … that you can stay on GNews 24 hours a day and get incredible news.”

At the same event, Guo underlined his pitch to potential investors. “Lots of investors trust us because we are in business in America,” Guo said as Bannon sat beside him. “Because they trust, believe us — we really can take down the CCP.”

The NFSC was also a big sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference this year after other companies, including Fox News, dropped out.

Hours after Guo was taken into custody, a fire broke out at his luxury Sherry-Netherland penthouse in Manhattan. The blaze is still under investigation.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Mr. Guo

Top Bannon Associate Guo Wengui Busted In Alleged Billion-Dollar Fraud

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon promoted a cryptocurrency and other properties created by his longtime associate and Chinese businessman Ho Wan Kwok, also known as Miles Guo -- who is now under federal indictment for charges related to a digital coin scheme as well as other allegations of fraud and money laundering.

Guo’s relationship with Bannon goes back at least to 2017. A New York Times report from the time stated that Bannon would head “the so-called Rule of Law Fund” — the $100 million effort that Guo was financing — to criticize the Chinese government. The Southern District of New York’s indictment indicates that Guo used two nonprofits — the Rule of Law Foundation and the Rule of Law Society — founded in 2018 to “amass followers who were aligned” with his purported policy objectives in China and who were also inclined to believe his “statements regarding investment and money-making opportunities.” Guo began funding Bannon in 2018, though the current state of their financial ties isn't publicly known.

Guo then leveraged his followers to launch a number of different allegedly fraudulent ventures. The newly unsealed indictment alleges that Guo and others “fraudulently obtained more than approximately $262 million in victim funds through the Himalaya Exchange, a purported cryptocurrency ‘ecosystem’ accessible on the internet.”

Himalaya Exchange included a digital coin used for trading called the Himalaya Coin, or H Coin, and a so-called stablecoin that was purportedly backed by U.S. federal reserves and had a fixed exchange rate of one Himalaya Dollar to one U.S. dollar.

Guo debuted the exchange around April 2021, and Bannon praised the coin in an interview the following November on GTV, another venture in Guo’s alleged fraudulent scheme, just days after the coin’s initial offering.

“It’s monumental,” Bannon said in response to the coin’s release.

“I think if you look at it, the pieces are coming in place,” he added. Bannon then listed a series of projects that he and Guo were jointly involved in, including “G News, GTV, there’s Gettr, there’s now H Coin, there’s the Himalaya Exchange.”

“If you look at the institutionalization of the counteroffensive to the Chinese Communist Party, it’s pretty impressive,” Bannon continued.

In fact, as laid out in the indictment, the purported crypto scheme wasn’t cryptocurrency at all, but rather a series of “credits” that could only be used on the Himalaya Exchange or ultimately converted to dollars (which the exchange could deny). Guo and his named co-conspirator, Kin Ming Je, aka William Je, later extracted a $37 million “loan” from Himalaya Exchange to cover the costs of Guo’s luxury yacht.

Bannon was arrested by Postal Service agents on the yacht in August 2020, on allegations of his own fraudulent scheme. In that case, federal prosecutors accused Bannon and others of defrauding contributors to his so-called “charity” “We Build the Wall” out of more than $15 million for personal expenses.

Federal investigators are also allegedly interested in a Bannon-linked cryptocurrency called FJB.

Bannon and Guo have many links to one another and have long praised each other in public.

In October 2020, two of Guo’s media properties lavished praise on Bannon, to which he responded by returning the favor.

“G News and GTV, great article today, comes out that GTV, Miles Guo, Steve Bannon, saving western civilization,” Bannon said. “Hey, I don’t know if I’d go that far but let’s say this: I’m so proud of G News and GTV for stepping up.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.