Update: Following the publication of this article, The Epoch Times released the following statement: “The company intends to and will fully cooperate with any investigation dealing with the allegations against Mr. Guan. In the interim, although Mr. Guan is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the company has suspended him until this matter is resolved.”
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department announced charges Monday against Weidong Guan, also known as Bill Guan, the chief financial officer of the conservative newspaper The Epoch Times.
Details of the DOJ’s case against Guan are still limited. The Southern District of New York released the indictment against Guan in a press release, but the case has yet to be docketed in the federal court system.
According to the DOJ, Guan and others conspired with others to participate in a “sprawling, transnational scheme” to launder at least approximately $67 million of illegally obtained funds to Epoch Times’ bank accounts. The indictment doesn’t name the media company, but Guan’s position with Epoch is public information.
The DOJ said Guan and Epoch’s “Make Money Online” team used cryptocurrency to purchase dirty money—funds that were garnered through the proceeds of crime—at a discount.
Guan and the others—he was the only person named—would then allegedly use the dirty money to open accounts, including prepaid debit card accounts, cryptocurrency accounts, and bank accounts. Those accounts were used to transfer the crime proceeds into bank accounts associated with Epoch, the DOJ has alleged.
That scheme was used to make it seem like Epoch was experiencing a major uptick in donations, according to the DOJ.
“[Epoch’s] internal financial accounting reflected an increased annual revenue over the previous year of approximately 410%—from approximately $15 million to approximately $62 million,” the DOJ said.
“When banks asked GUAN about the increase in transactions entering the bank accounts of the Media Entities, GUAN lied, including to two U.S.-based banks, and claimed that the increase in funds came from donations,” the DOJ said.
“However, in 2022, GUAN wrote a letter addressed to a congressional office falsely stating ‘donations’ constitute ‘an insignificant portion of the overall revenue’ of [Epoch].”
Guan, 61, of Secaucus, New Jersey, faces one count of conspiring to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and two counts of bank fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
The DOJ said the charges do not relate to Epoch’s newsgathering activities.
Epoch Times editor Ivan Pentchoukov did not respond to a message seeking comment. The newspaper does not appear to have commented on the charges.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
Note: Silva used to report for The Epoch Times.
