Steve Bannon is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case against Guo Wengui.
The trial of fugitive Chinese mogul Guo Wengui kicks off in New York Wednesday, as federal prosecutors prepare to lay out what they have called a “complex” conspiracy involving elaborate financial schemes, dozens of offshore accounts, and evidence translated from Mandarin. But the heart of the case is a simple and familiar American phenomenon: political grift—a confidence job in which a demagogic leader allegedly translated partisan passion into personal gain. If the case against Guo sounds a bit like what critics say about Donald Trump, that’s no coincidence. Guo’s rise was aided by some of the same people who have boosted the former president.
Guo grew up in China, made a fortune there through allegedly corrupt real estate maneuvers, and arrived in the United States in 2015 as a billionaire. Once in America, Guo built an eclectic empire of organizations, created a public brand as a leading critic of the Chinese Communist Party, and amassed large following of fellow Chinese emigres—people whose loyalty is reflected by their self-description as “ants.”
Guo is accused of leading a conspiracy in which he defrauded those supporters, who believed they were part of a mission to “take down the CCP,” to line his own pockets. After priming them with attacks on China’s government—along with wild conspiracy theories about covid, the 2020 election, Jews, and economic disaster—he hit them up for investments in a series of financial ventures, drawing in more than $1 billion, then hoarding most of the proceeds.
This alleged conspiracy was led by Guo, but it relied on the perception that he was both a leading opponent of the Chinese regime and a Trumpworld insider, privy to plans of the US government. Those claims were enabled particularly by Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser, who prosecutors have labeled a “co-conspirator” in Guo’s plot, though Bannon has not been charged. Other Trumpworld figures who have taken money, jobs, or titles from Guo include Rudy Giuliani, Trump adviser Jason Miller, former White House aide Peter Navarro, Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, Turning Point USA chief Charlie Kirk, and Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. Even the fabulist former Rep. George Santos got in on the action. None of these figures have been accused of legal wrongdoing in the Guo case.
