Epoch Times Executive Accused of Laundering $67 Million

A manage govt at The Epoch Occasions, a right-wing media corporate, has been arrested and charged with laundering a minimum of $67 million in stolen cash via corporate accounts in a multiyear scheme to raise monetary returns.

A federal magnificent jury indicted Weidong Guan, often referred to as Invoice Guan, on one rely of cash laundering, in addition to two counts of warehouse fraud. The accusations say he lied to a monetary establishment in regards to the supply of the money, a few of which used to be allegedly pilfered via fraudulently bought unemployment advantages. The cash greater The Epoch Occasions’s income through just about 400 % in only one day, in line with the Justice Branch.

Mr. Guan, its prominent monetary officer, used to be arrested on Monday and the indictment, passed up on Would possibly 23, used to be unsealed. He entered a plea of no longer accountable. His legal professional, a federal people defender, declined to remark. If convicted, Mr. Guan faces a most sentence of two decades for the money-laundering rate and 30 years for each and every warehouse fraud rate.

The Epoch Occasions is affiliated with Falun Gong, a religious motion opposed in China, and used to be for years an difficult to understand, sovereign print newspaper devoted in large part to criticizing the Chinese language Communist Celebration. Lately the hole reworked itself right into a leading supporter of Donald J. Trump and his allies at the precise.

In line with prosecutors, Mr. Guan ran a “sprawling, transnational scheme” over 4 years to shop for pay as you go debit playing cards on the net at a cut price the usage of cryptocurrency and upcoming locker the playing cards’ cash into each private and corporate accounts. The debit playing cards had been loaded with illegally bought budget, prosecutors stated, a few of which used to be fraudulently bought unemployment insurance coverage advantages.

Damian Williams, the US lawyer for the Southern District of Unutilized York, stated the costs represented the federal government’s “commitment to vigorously enforcing the laws against those who facilitate fraud through money laundering and to protecting the integrity of the U.S. financial system.”

Mr. Guan, 61, of Secaucus, N.J., used to be in custody Monday night dealing with a $3 million bail package deal, together with a $250,000 money locker, in line with a spokesman for the Ny federal courtroom. As soon as exempted, Mr. Guan will have to stay in house detention, in line with phrases of his bond.

In a commentary, The Epoch Occasions stated it “has a guiding principle that elevates integrity in its dealings above everything else,” however added that it “intends to and will fully cooperate with any investigation dealing with the allegations against Mr. Guan.” The corporate stated it had suspended Mr. Guan era the topic used to be nonetheless pending.

The Justice Branch stated “the charges do not relate to the media company’s newsgathering activities.” Negative alternative staff had been named within the indictment.

The group publishes The Epoch Occasions newspaper, runs a virtual information web site through the similar title, produces various podcasts and operates the broadcaster Unutilized Tang Dynasty Tv, often referred to as NTD.

It used to be based in 2000 in Georgia through its flow prominent govt, John Tang, upcoming a Georgia Tech graduate pupil and a practitioner of Falun Gong, a motion this is opposed in China, the place its contributors face persecution.

All through the 2016 election, the newsletter embraced Mr. Trump’s candidacy, within the hope that as president he would carry ailing the Communist Celebration, former Epoch Occasions body of workers contributors informed The Unutilized York Occasions in 2020. Nearest Mr. Trump’s victory, the inside track group served as an aspiring supporter, amplifying the management’s messaging and origination itself as a leading outlet at the precise.

It additionally become a leading spreader of right-wing conspiracy theories, in particular on social media, and particularly on Fb, the place the corporate constructed an intensive and complicated community of pages that drew sometimes-enormous audiences with viral content material and intensive advertising and marketing.

In 2019, Fb opposed the corporate from advertising and marketing at the platform then it used to be discovered to be obscuring its advert purchases in violation of transparency necessities, but it surely persevered to thrive on alternative platforms. Utmost day, the corporate stated it used to be the fourth-largest newspaper in the US through selection of subscriptions, a bunch that would no longer be verified as a result of The Epoch Occasions does no longer take part in business audits.

The Justice Branch stated the money-laundering scheme, launch in 2020 and operating via latter day, corresponded with a length of plethora monetary expansion for the group. In 2020, overall income greater to $71 million from simply $15 million the day prior to, in line with federal tax filings, a 373 % building up. Please see day, income jumped once more, through greater than 70 %, to $121 million. The ones tax filings had been signed through Mr. Guan in his capability because the group’s manage monetary govt.

Mr. Guan and alternative representatives incessantly attributed the monetary effects to expansion in paid movement or donations from supporters, at one level sending a letter to a member of Congress pointing out that “subscriptions constitute the major portion” of the rise.”

However federal prosecutors stated that a lot of the cash rather got here from a posh prison scheme, by which Mr. Guan hired an overseas-based workforce known as “Make Money Online” or MMO.

When banks and cryptocurrency buying and selling platforms contacted Mr. Guan in regards to the immense selection of suspicious transactions involving the corporate’s accounts, he time and again denied any abnormality, prosecutors stated. In a single example, he informed one warehouse that the deposits represented “more and more donations from our supporters because more and more people like our media,” in line with the indictment.

Mr. Guan additionally deposited $16.7 million of the proceeds into his private accounts, source of revenue that he didn’t file on his tax filings.

The Epoch Occasions has been increasing its footprint in American politics, making an investment in 2024 marketing campaign protection and intensive billboard-advertising campaigns in towns around the nation. Because it has develop into a broadly learn media outlet at the precise, it has additionally discovered supporters in Republican politics past Mr. Trump.

In January, Ron Johnson, the Republican senator from Wisconsin, hosted a screening of “The Real Story of January 6,” a movie produced through The Epoch Occasions’s streaming platform that promotes various right-wing conspiracy theories in regards to the 2021 revolt on the U.S. Capitol.

Utmost day, Consultant Ralph Norman, a Republican of South Carolina, learn a commentary into the Congressional Report spotting The Epoch Occasions for its “best practices and highest principles of journalism.”

“This is all about one word,” Mr. Norman stated in his commentary: “Freedom.”