Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui (Photo: Getty).
Last week, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Chinese businessman Guo Wengui at his luxury apartment in New York on fraud charges.
The property tycoon is accused of defrauding investment club members of billions of dollars to fund his lavish lifestyle. He has even been suspected of being a Chinese agent – something he denies.
The billionaire, once one of China's richest men, has always presented himself as a rapper, social media influencer, cryptocurrency guru and real estate mogul.
He was born into a poor family of eight in a mining town in Jilin province. “Sometimes we didn’t even have firewood,” Guo told the New York Times . “We had to burn wet branches from the mountains.”
He later moved to Shandong province, and served time in prison before starting his business in Zhangzhou, Henan . He met and married his wife when he was 15 and she was 14.
In Zhengzhou, Guo founded a real estate company and built the Yuda International Trade Center, the city's tallest building. His signature project, however, is the Pangu Mall in Beijing.
The Chinese government accused Mr. Guo of corruption and fraud, charges he denied. He left the country in 2014 and sought asylum in the United States in 2017.
At one point, Mr. Guo was ranked the 73rd richest person in China. In 2015, Forbes estimated his fortune at $1.1 billion, thanks to his investments in real estate and securities companies.
However, he had a large amount of his assets in Hong Kong seized in 2018. Guo filed for bankruptcy in February 2022. He estimated that his assets had dropped to $50,000-100,000.
Guo’s New York apartment, where he was recently arrested, is an 8,000-square-foot, $82 million penthouse overlooking Central Park. The apartment has six bedrooms and seven bathrooms, as well as a large wraparound terrace.
According to ABC News , a fire broke out at the apartment on March 15 while FBI agents were still searching the residence of billionaire Guo after he was charged with a multi-billion dollar fraud. According to the New York Post, the FBI is looking into whether the fire was started remotely to destroy evidence.
Guo, along with an associate named William Je, were charged with wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors said the two raised more than $1 billion from thousands of online followers who thought they were investing in a media venture, an exclusive members club and cryptocurrency.
Source
Comment (0)