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The chief financial officer of the Epoch Times has been arrested on federal money-laundering charges, prosecutors said Monday.
Bill Guan, 61, is charged in U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan with two counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The scheme, prosecutors said, involved “at least approximately $67 million of illegally obtained funds to benefit himself and the media company.”
Mr. Guan was arrested Sunday and made his first appearance Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron, where he pleaded not guilty and released on a $3 million bond. His travel is restricted to areas in New York and New Jersey.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero, the Justice Department said in a press release.
According to CNBC, the case docket showed late Monday that Mr. Guan had a public defender.
The charges carry maximum federal-prison sentences of 30 years (bank fraud) and 20 years (money laundering).
The charges “do not relate to the Media Company’s newsgathering activities,” the Justice Department stated.
The DOJ statement said Mr. Guan led a team that “used cryptocurrency to knowingly purchase tens of millions of dollars in crime proceeds, including proceeds of fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits, that had been loaded onto tens of thousands of prepaid debit cards.”
“The crime proceeds were generally purchased by the scheme participants, including members of the [Make Money Online] Team and others working with them, using a particular cryptocurrency platform, at discounted rates of approximately 70 to 80 cents per dollar, and in exchange for cryptocurrency,” Justice stated.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in the statement that “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.”
According to prosecutors, Mr. Guan’s scheme raised Epoch Times’ revenue from “approximately $15 million to approximately $62 million” between 2019 and 2020.
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