Epoch Times CFO charged in a money laundering scheme worth $67 million
Chief financial officer at Epoch Times’ chief financial officer has been arrested. Epoch Times news outlet has been arrested for his suspected involvement in a major money laundering scheme.
Federal prosecutors have claimed the allegations that Bill Guan, 61, was part of a worldwide plot to smuggle at least $67 million (PS52m) of illicit cash to benefit Guan as well as his newspaper, the Epoch Times.
According to the indictment, Mr. Guan headed the publication’s “Make Money online” group, who utilized cryptocurrency to purchase tens millions of dollars in proceeds from criminals.
Mr. Guan hasn’t yet entered an agreement to plead. If convicted, he can endure more than 30 years in prison.
In a statement released on Monday evening Monday evening, the Epoch Times told the BBC that it “intends to and will completely be a part of any investigation that deals with allegations against Mr. Guan”.
“Although Mr. Guan has been found innocent, until proved to be innocent beyond an unreasonable doubt The company has rescinded the employee until the matter is settled,” the news outlet announced.
The company did not answer specific questions regarding it being part of the Make Money Online team referenced by prosecutors.
Mr. Guan was not able to be reached via the BBC.
In the indictment of 12 pages federal prosecutors outlined the scheme that, according to them, was initiated around 2020.
The plan, as prosecutors described was quite simple The plan was simple: Members of the Make Money Online (MMO) team would purchase proceeds from crime using cryptocurrency for a price and deposit the money to bank accounts controlled by companies affiliated with newspapers.
The illicit proceeds will eventually be transferred back to Epoch Times accounts through “tens of thousands of layers of transactions” which includes pre-paid debit cards, as well as financial accounts created using stolen identity information.
In the case of indictment for a long time, the scheme was working to enrich The Epoch Times, pumping tens of millions of dollars into the publication.
At the same time that Mr Guan created the idea The company’s internal audit reported that the company’s annual revenues had risen by nearly 410%, from $15 million in 2019, to a staggering $62 million in the following year.
When banks inquired of Mr. Guan what the source of cash was coming from, He lied, claiming that the money came from “donations” the prosecutors claimed.
Mr. Guan was accused of conspiring to commit a crime of money laundering, as well as 2 counts of fraud in the bank.
Prosecutors have noted that these charges “do not have anything to do with”the Media Company [the Epoch Times’] newsgathering efforts”.
In 2000, the Epoch Times began as a small, low-cost newspaper that was that was distributed free of charge within New York.
It was created by Chinese-Americans who were part of the religious group known as Falun Gong.
Since then it was founded, it has become one of the United States’s most influential conservative news organizations as well as a place for conspiratorial theories, right-wing misinformation, and fierce opposing Chinese Communist Party. Chinese Communist Party.
