MANHATTAN (CN) — The Department of Justice charged the finance chief of far-right newspaper The Epoch Times for a massive money laundering scheme involving the publication in an indictment unsealed Monday in Manhattan federal court.
Founded in 2000, The Epoch Times — known to be affiliated with the Falun Gong new religious movement — has tied itself to right-wing politics and conspiracy theories in Europe and the United States. It strongly opposes the Chinese Communist Party and fervently supports former president Donald Trump.
According to prosecutors, the paper is also home to a $67 million fraud scheme run by the company’s Chief Financial Officer Bill Guan, who “conspired with others to benefit himself, the media company, and its affiliates by laundering tens of millions of dollars in fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits and other crime proceeds,” they say.
Prosecutors made clear that the charges do not relate to the paper’s “newsgathering activities,” but that the organization itself was benefited by the supposed fraud.
Guan, also known as Weidong Guan, managed The Epoch Times’ “Make Money Online” team. According to prosecutors in the 12-page indictment, the team used cryptocurrency to buy prepaid debit cards loaded with the illicit cash for around 70 to 80 cents on the dollar.
Once they bought the cards, the “Make Money Online” team supposedly used stolen personal information to open bank and crypto accounts to transfer the crime proceeds to The Epoch Times. The team lived up to its name — prosecutors claim that around the same time as the scheme began, the newspaper reported an increase in its annual revenue from around $15 million to around $62 million.
Prosecutors claim that Guan personally pocketed a chunk of the illicit revenue as well: around $16.7 million from 85 transfers between April 2020 and January 2021.
“Certain of the funds were transferred back to other cryptocurrency accounts with [an unnamed cryptocurrency platform], likely to purchase additional crime proceeds, in continuation of the money laundering scheme,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment.
Guan never paid taxes on those millions of dollars in transfers, according to investigators, and repeatedly ducked questions from banks and other financial institutions about the influx of cash.
“When banks raised questions about the funds, Guan allegedly lied repeatedly and falsely claimed that the funds came from legitimate donations to the media company,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a press release accompanying the indictment.
Guan, who investigators believe to be the scheme’s ringleader, simultaneously wrote a letter to a congressional office in 2022 claiming that donations constitute “an insignificant portion of the overall revenue” of the paper.
According to the prosecutors, numerous banks and crypto lenders flagged Guan’s activity as potentially fraudulent as early as 2020. But Guan, operating from a foreign Epoch Times office, either lied about the source of the revenue or outright ignored their contact attempts.
The Epoch Times told Courthouse News that Guan has been suspended as the federal probe plays out.
"The Epoch Times has a guiding principle that elevates integrity in its dealings above everything else,” an Epoch Times spokesperson said in a statement. “The company intends to and will fully cooperate with any investigation dealing with the allegations against Mr. Guan. In the interim, although Mr. Guan is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the company has suspended him until this matter is resolved."
Guan is facing one count of conspiring to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He’s also facing two bank fraud charges, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.
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