Miles Guo has been jailed in Brooklyn since his March 2023 arrest.NEW YORK — Exiled Chinese businessman Miles Guo scammed his followers out of more than US$1 billion after Chinese authorities seized his property, a federal prosecutor said on May 24 as Guo's fraud trial began in New York.
"Miles Guo ran a simple con on a grand scale. He lived a billionaire's lifestyle using money he stole from people he tricked and cheated," Fergenson said. Guo's attorney Sabrina Shroff said in her opening statement that his businesses were legitimate, and that his aim was to build a movement against the Chinese Communist Party.Many of Guo's actions, such as owning multiple phones and bank accounts, were common-sense protections as the Chinese government continued to try to disrupt his work in the US, Shroff said.
Prosecutors said Guo stole from the funds to buy a New Jersey mansion, a yacht, several luxury cars and other extravagances, including two US$36,000 mattresses. It was on Guo's US$37 million yacht, the Lady May, where Bannon was arrested in 2020 in a separate fraud case.Bannon had pleaded not guilty.Officials there accused Guo of bribery, money laundering and other crimes, which he has denied.