A MAGA fraudster's elaborate scheme left his victims suicidal after he stole hundreds of millions from his followers, according to a Mother Jones report published Friday.
Guo Wengui, a Steve Bannon associate who secretly funded a pro-Trump social media company, claimed he was a billionaire Chinese dissident with deep knowledge of corruption among China's top leaders. He won over a group of immigrants with promises to launch a news organization, the "New Federal State of China," with Bannon, which they announced in 2020 on a boat in the New York City Harbor near the Statue of Liberty.
"On the boat, Guo joined Bannon in reading a declaration of principles, told the former Donald Trump aide he loved him, and kissed him," Mother Jones reported. "Then Guo bit his own index finger and signed the declaration with his blood."
This ordeal led to a series of corrupt moves. Nearly six years later, at an upcoming hearing on Monday, prosecutors will ask Judge Analisa Torres to sentence Guo to more than 30 years in prison for running one of "this nation’s worst and most rampant frauds."
"The new organization was wildly ambitious. Guo and Bannon called it a 'government-in-waiting,' prepared to step in and run China following what they claimed was the imminent collapse of ruling Chinese Communist Party, or CCP," according to Mother Jones. "At the same time, Guo was also seeking investments in GTV, an online streaming site he claimed would compete with companies like Amazon and TikTok, make investors rich, and air reporting that would fulfill his oft-stated goal: 'Take down CCP.'"
A jury in 2024 convicted Guo of stealing hundreds of millions from his followers.
"The New Federal State of China, the harbor ceremony, the nonprofits, and the media companies were all part of an elaborate con Guo used to 'lock in' those supporters before hitting them up for investments, prosecutors said in a sentencing memo last week," Mother Jones reported.
It has left his victims in difficult positions — and at times in mental turmoil.
"Another person wrote that the fraud 'stripped away' much of the savings their mother had worked to pass on to her family and 'exacerbated her health conditions, robbing her of peace in her final years,'" according to Mother Jones.
"Many of the victims reported experiencing anxiety and depression as a result of the fraud. A half-dozen of the victims quoted by prosecutors said they thought about suicide."
