The main financial officer of conservative international news outlet The Epoch Instances has been arrested and billed with top a yearslong plan to launder at minimum $67 million in illicit cash, federal prosecutors said Monday.
The “sprawling” plan — which included cryptocurrency, tens of hundreds of prepaid debit cards, fraudulently received unemployment insurance policy gains and stolen particular facts — fueled a significant enhance in The Epoch Times’ documented yearly income, prosecutors alleged.
Weidong “Bill” Guan, 61, is charged in U.S. District Court docket in reduced Manhattan with 1 rely of conspiracy to dedicate funds laundering and two counts of lender fraud.
Guan was arrested Sunday morning and pleaded not responsible on Monday afternoon ahead of a federal justice of the peace decide in Manhattan, according to a courtroom see. He was produced on a $3 million personalized recognizance bond, and his vacation is restricted to parts of New York and New Jersey, amongst other limitations.
Guan “conspired with some others to gain himself, the media firm, and its affiliates by laundering tens of thousands and thousands of bucks in fraudulently received unemployment insurance added benefits and other criminal offense proceeds,” U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams reported in a statement.
“When banks elevated questions about the cash, Guan allegedly lied frequently and falsely claimed that the resources came from genuine donations to the media organization,” Williams claimed.
The Epoch Moments is not mentioned by name in the indictment. But Guan is stated as Epoch Times’ CFO on the nonprofit media company’s most modern tax return, submitted in late 2023.
Prosecutors claimed the funds laundering scheme benefited “a multinational media business headquartered in Manhattan, New York.” The Epoch Instances is headquartered on West 28th St. in Manhattan.
Prosecutors allege that the scheme by Guan and his co-conspirators induced the company’s revenue to leap from “approximately $15 million to approximately $62 million” among 2019 and 2020.
According to The Epoch Times’ publicly accessible IRS nonprofit tax returns, in 2019 the enterprise reported plan income of $15.5 million. The adhering to year, The Epoch Situations reported tax-exempt earnings of $62.7 million.
The Epoch Occasions did not promptly answer to CNBC’s ask for for comment.
Guan, a resident of Secaucus, New Jersey, managed the Epoch Times’ “Make Cash On the net staff,” which carried out the scheme to get “crime proceeds” and transfer them to financial institution accounts joined to the media outlet, according to his indictment.
From 2020 to 2024, the team allegedly employed a crypto system to acquire tens of tens of millions of bucks in criminal offense proceeds at discounted costs, of 70 to 80 cents on the greenback, in exchange for cryptocurrency. The crime proceeds, which arrived from sources like “fraudulently received unemployment insurance plan benefits,” were being loaded on to tens of countless numbers of pay as you go debit playing cards, prosecutors alleged.
Soon after acquiring the crime proceeds, members allegedly utilised stolen individually identifiable facts to open up numerous types of accounts and transfer the proceeds into bank accounts linked with the media outlet and relevant entities.
They had been generally laundered again by means of other accounts, which include Guan’s very own own bank and crypto accounts, in accordance to prosecutors.
To disguise the unlawful character of the proceeds, Guan and his co-conspirators allegedly lied to banking institutions and other entities about their resources.
An lawyer for Guan could not instantly be attained, but a circumstance docket confirmed late Monday that Guan experienced been appointed a general public defender.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Workplace declined to deliver any extra comment on the indictment in opposition to Guan, which was submitted in late Might and unsealed Monday.
The lender fraud counts each and every carry a highest sentence of 30 several years in jail, whilst the conspiracy retains a 20-calendar year highest prison sentence. The prices from Guan “do not relate to the Media Company’s newsgathering activities,” the Department of Justice pointed out in a press launch.
NBC Information and other shops have documented on The Epoch Times’ affiliation with the Chinese religious team Falun Gong, which in recent many years has supported previous President Donald Trump as an ally in its opposition of China’s ruling Communist Party.
