Tuesday, October 22

U.S. appeals courtroom rejects bail for Chinese businessman awaiting fraud trial

NEW YORK — A self-exiled Chinese businessman awaiting trial in a $1 billion fraud case will stay behind bars after an appeals courtroom on Wednesday rejected his request to override a decrease courtroom’s discovering that he would possibly flee or hurt the neighborhood if he have been to be freed.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan mentioned in a two-page order that Guo Wengui’s attorneys had did not persuade a three-judge panel that Judge Analisa Torres made a transparent error in refusing to simply accept a $25 million bail bundle proposal in April.

Torres mentioned she didn’t belief that Guo, listed in courtroom papers beneath the identify Ho Wan Kwok, would obey courtroom orders if he was launched on strict circumstances together with GPS monitoring and a 24-hour armed guard. She additionally wrote that he posed a risk to the neighborhood.



Guo, who was arrested in March, has pleaded not responsible to fees together with wire and securities fraud. Prosecutors mentioned he fleeced 1000’s of buyers in too-good-to-be-true choices that promised outsize income for buyers in his media firm, GTV Media Group Inc., his so-called Himalaya Farm Alliance, G’CLUBS, and the Himalaya Exchange.

He allegedly used proceeds from the five-year fraud scheme beginning in 2018 to purchase extravagant items and property for himself and his household. Prosecutors say he has a 50,000-square-foot mansion, a $3.5 million Ferrari, two $36,000 mattresses and a $37 million luxurious yacht.

His attorneys, although, say he’s broke.

Guo was as soon as regarded as among the many richest folks in China earlier than he left in 2014 throughout a crackdown on corruption that ensnared people near him, together with a high intelligence official. Chinese authorities have accused Guo of rape, kidnapping, bribery and different offenses.

Guo has mentioned these allegations are false and have been meant to punish him for publicly outing corruption and criticizing main figures within the Communist Party.

While residing in New York, he turned a fierce critic of the ruling Communist Party in China and developed a detailed relationship with former President Donald Trump’s onetime political strategist Steve Bannon. In 2020, Guo and Bannon introduced a joint initiative to overthrow the Chinese authorities.

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