Judge orders Guo Wengui to forfeit $889 million, sentences him to 30 years

A federal judge in Manhattan on Monday sentenced U.S.-based China critic and tycoon Guo Wengui to 30 years in prison for racketeering and fraud, and ordered him to forfeit $889 million.

The sentence, handed down by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres, follows Guo’s July 2024 felony conviction on nine of 12 counts related to his alleged misuse of money raised from followers for a U.S.-based anti-China movement.

Prosecutors had argued that Guo siphoned more than $1 billion in funds raised from his followers, describing his fraud as more destructive than that of crypto kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried, who is serving a 25-year sentence. They compared him instead with the late Wall Street Ponzi operator Bernard Madoff, who drew a 150-year sentence.

The sentence matched the minimum the government had requested, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In announcing the sentence, Judge Torres, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said she understood Guo and his family may have suffered abuses at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party but that “none of them excuse his fraudulent conduct.” She said, “I struggle, I struggle to compare Mr. Guo’s case with any other.”

Guo, who is in his late 50s and also known as Miles Kwok, maintained his innocence. His lawyers said he intends to appeal the conviction. Ahead of the sentencing, Guo’s defense team disputed the government’s valuation of the losses he caused as “flawed arithmetic” and cited his continued support from many whom the government described as victims.

After hearing the sentence, a defiant-looking Guo nodded toward a courtroom packed with his supporters and clasped his hands in a praying motion, repeating a gesture he had made during his trial.

His supporters said they remain content of his innocence and called the case politically motivated. They are seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump, a possibility that could shift Guo’s fate. Beijing has long demanded that the U.S. hand him over.

The sentencing adds to a list of federal prosecutions involving individuals in the U.S. connected to Chinese political activity. In June, Thomas Pauken II, an American journalist who has lived in China since 2010, pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government, as MSI previously reported.