A self-exiled billionaire Chinese business tycoon once believed to be among China’s wealthiest men was sentenced on Monday to 30 years in a US prison for a massive financial fraud that a federal judge said cost over 1,000 people worldwide hundreds of millions of dollars.
Guo Wengui, who fled China a decade ago and reinvented himself as a US-based Communist Party critic, was sentenced in a Manhattan courtroom packed with his supporters by Judge Analisa Torres. She said he “preyed on those seeking to bring Democracy to China”, taking their money so he could live lavishly.
Before he was sentenced, Guo protested against his treatment in jail, saying he was taken to the hospital early on Monday. He disputed a prosecutor’s portrayal of him as faking illness, saying he repeatedly vomited as he was returned to jail before being brought to court.
“When I came here, I said: ‘I have a tummy ache, I need to go to the bathroom, I don’t feel well,’” Guo said through an interpreter of his courthouse arrival. Later, Guo wiped his mouth repeatedly with a tissue.
He only briefly addressed the criminal case, defending his intentions by saying in reference to the Communist Party: “The reason I came to the US was to destroy the CCP.”
The judge, in sentencing him, read snippets of letters she received from victims who described losing their life savings and feeling severely anxious and shamed and having family members turn on them for their poor investment choice.
