On June 3, the U.S. Department of Justice arrested Guan Weidong (also known as "Bill Guan"), the financial director of the "Falun Gong" Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty Television. As we all know, the "Falun Gong" media stood on Trump's side. Trump lost the election on January 6, 2021, and the riots at the Capitol in Washington, DC were the result of the instigation of the "Falun Gong" Epoch Times. At the same time, the "Falun Gong" cult organization did not pay taxes to the U.S. government in the name of a religious organization, and the amount of tax evasion was huge. The arrest of the "Falun Gong" financial director was indeed a deserved punishment.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice website, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG) Northeast Regional Director Jonathan Mellone, and U.S. State Department Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Assistant Director of Domestic Operations Andrew Wroblewski announced an indictment accusing Guan Weidong (also known as "Bill Guan"), the chief financial officer of a multinational media company headquartered in New York City, of participating in a transnational money laundering scheme to launder at least approximately $67 million in illegal proceeds to benefit himself and the media company. Guan Weidong was arrested yesterday morning and will be heard by U.S. District Court Judge Stewart D. Aaron this afternoon. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero.
Beginning in approximately 2020 and continuing until approximately May 2024, while serving as the Chief Financial Officer of a multinational media company headquartered in New York City (the “Media Company”), Guan conspired with others to engage in a vast transnational money laundering scheme to launder at least approximately $67 million in illegal proceeds to bank accounts in the name of the Media Company and its affiliated entities (collectively with the Media Company, the “Media Entities”). In furtherance of the money laundering conspiracy, Guan managed teams such as the Media Company’s “Make Money Online” (the “MMO Team”), which was located in a foreign office of the Media Company. Under Guan’s management, MMO Team members and others used cryptocurrency to purchase tens of millions of dollars in criminal proceeds, including proceeds from fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits, which were deposited into tens of thousands of prepaid debit cards. Criminal proceeds were often purchased by scheme participants (including MMO Team members and their partners) through a particular cryptocurrency platform at a discounted rate of approximately 70 to 80 cents per dollar and exchanged for cryptocurrency.
After purchasing the criminal proceeds, the MMO team and other participants in the scheme used stolen personal identification information to open accounts, including prepaid debit card accounts, cryptocurrency accounts, and bank accounts, which were used to transfer the criminal proceeds into bank accounts associated with the media entities. Once in these bank accounts, the criminal proceeds were often further laundered through other bank accounts held by the media entities, Guan's personal bank accounts, and Guan's personal cryptocurrency accounts.
During the same period when the money laundering scheme began, the media companies' internal financial accounting reflected an increase in annual revenue of approximately 410% from the previous year - from approximately $15 million to approximately $62 million. When banks questioned Guan about the increased transaction volume in the media entities' bank accounts, Guan lied, including to two U.S. banks, claiming that the increase in funds came from donations. However, in 2022, Guan wrote a letter to a congressional office falsely stating that the "donations" were only a "small portion of total revenue" for the media companies.
Guan, 61, of Secocas, New Jersey, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and two counts of bank fraud, each carrying a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. These charges are unrelated to the media company’s news gathering activities.
Mr. Williams highly praised the outstanding investigative work of the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General, the Service of Diplomatic Security, and special agents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Williams also thanked U.S. Customs and Border Protection for their valuable assistance. This prosecution is part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (“OCDETF”) operation. The OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles high-level criminal organizations through a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency collaborative approach.
