Miles Guo, the exiled Chinese businessman who built a following as a critic of Beijing, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a fraud scheme that raised more than $1 billion from investors. Part of that scheme ran through a fake cryptocurrency called Himalaya Coin.
US District Judge Analisa Torres handed down the sentence Monday in the Southern District of New York, according to a press release from the SDNY US Attorney's Office. Guo, also known as Ho Wan Kwok and Guo Wengui, was ordered to forfeit $889 million, and the DOJ said he and his family spent victims' stolen funds on a $26.5 million New Jersey mansion and a Lamborghini, among other luxury items. A federal jury convicted him in July 2024 on racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud and money laundering charges after a seven-week trial.
Fake H Coin
Guo launched what he called the Himalaya Exchange in a 2021 broadcast on his media platform GTV, pitching it as a cryptocurrency ecosystem where users could trade "H Coin" and "H Dollar." Prosecutors said in the SDNY release that the tokens were "little more than made-up figures on an internal company spreadsheet," not blockchain-native assets as advertised.
The crypto pitch was one piece of a wider operation that also drew money through GTV stock offerings, a members club called G|CLUBS and a nonprofit called the Rule of Law Foundation, prosecutors said. Guo, 55, fled China for the US in 2017 and built a following among Chinese dissidents. He also cultivated ties with prominent right-wing figures in U.S. politics, including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, Time reported. Bannon has not been charged in this case.
Guo Plans Appeal
Guo maintains his innocence and intends to appeal, Time reported, and had asked the court for a term substantially below 30 years.
An associate of Guo's, Yvette Wang, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her role in the same scheme, the SDNY US Attorney's Office said.
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