A year after helping his buddy Guo Wengui create GTV, Stephen Bannon participated in a live broadcast. Bannon celebrated Guo’s alleged cryptocurrency, HCoin. Bannon called the money “monumental” and “exceptional”. Bannon also praised Guo’s Himalaya Exchange for trading digital assets like HCoin. Bannon praised GTV. He promoted Guo’s fashion firm. Bannon said that Guo’s fans—mostly Chinese emigrants—could damage China’s government through these businesses. Bannon marveled by the Chinese Communist Party counteroffensive’s institutionalization.
Bannon has often praised Guo and his firms, frequently in forums where his views largely reach Guo’s anti-Communist adherents.
On Wednesday, federal officials detained Guo and his former financier William Je for plundering over $1 billion from thousands of Guo loyalists by soliciting investments in Bannon-backed firms. Authorities called the firms primarily bogus. They alleged that Guo and Bannon’s blockchain technology and early HCoin’s $27 billion value were false. Guo, who fled China in 2014 to avoid criminal prosecution, reportedly used investors’ money to buy a Ferrari, two $36,000 beds, and a boat where Bannon stayed. Guo claimed nearly no assets in federal bankruptcy court. Guo, who was denied bail Wednesday, denies wrongdoing.
Wednesday’s charges and SEC lawsuit also criticized Bannon and Guo’s five-year effort. Authorities said that Bannon and Guo’s “whistleblower campaign” of corporations and organizations was a sham. The feds alleged Guo used Bannon’s “counteroffensive to Chinese Communist Party” to enrich himself.
Bannon is not facing Guo-related charges. Bannon, his lawyer, and a spokesperson ignored repeated requests. Federal charges do not reference Bannon. He hasn’t been linked to Guo’s alleged theft of investor monies.
Bannon still helped Guo. The former senior adviser to Donald Trump openly supported firms that Guo reportedly exploited to steal from fans and privately coached Guo on how to get investors.
According to two sources contacted by FBI and SEC officers, Bannon’s work for Guo is under investigation. One person claimed agents questioned about Bannon’s 2020 advice to Guo on raising investment capital.
Guo gathered hundreds of millions of dollars by providing investors a chance to engage in a private GTV share sale in spring 2020. GTV’s board included Bannon.
Those acquainted with GTV told Mother Jones that Bannon played a deeper role than publicly understood. These individuals say Bannon personally encouraged Guo, Je, and others on the GTV offering. Sources stated Bannon advised G|Clubs, a follow-up. Guo promised club members discounted stock in other Guo enterprises for $10,000 to $50,000. Prosecutors claimed members get “limited to no evident membership advantages.”
Bannon’s pay is unknown. Axios stated that Guo paid Bannon $1 million under a year-long contract that expired in August 2019 and that the two negotiated another one-year pact. They may have signed one.
Bannon was a board member of the Rule of Law Society, one of two comparable nonprofit groups Guo founded with Bannon’s support. Authorities say Guo’s deception began in 2018 when Bannon and Guo launched the organizations and stated they would probe Chinese government wrongdoing. Guo utilized the groups “to acquire followers who were associated with his stated campaign against the Chinese Communist Party and who were also predisposed to trust [Guo’s] promises promising investment and moneymaking possibilities,” the accusation alleges. Guo then “offered false and grossly misleading information…to deceive” those followers.
Bannon constantly promoted Guo’s Rule of Law organizations. Bannon and Guo launched “the New Federal State of China” in 2020, sponsored by the same two charities, as a government-in-waiting to overthrow China’s authorities. Bannon has supported Guo’s argument that these organizations threaten China’s leadership. According to Mother Jones, Guo and his followers have inflated their actions and used these organisations to gather significant amounts of money.
Federal authorities detained Bannon aboard Guo’s boat in August 2020 for plotting to swindle an unrelated organization. Bannon was arrested and removed from GTV and the Rule of Law Society, but Trump pardoned him. New York state charged Bannon similarly last year. He has promoted Guo’s initiatives and praised his financial and political skills, calling him “the George Washington of the new China.” Bannon hasn’t spoken about his detained ally since Wednesday’s indictments.