Image source, Getty Images
- author, Holly Honderich
- role, BBC News, Washington
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The chief financial officer of news media outlet The Epoch Times has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in a large-scale money laundering scheme.
Federal prosecutors allege Bill Guan, 61, was involved in a global scheme to launder at least $67 million (£52 million) of illicit funds for himself and the Epoch Times.
According to the indictment, Guan led the media company’s “online money making” team, which used cryptocurrency to purchase tens of millions of dollars worth of criminal proceeds.
Guan has yet to plead guilty and, if convicted, could face more than 30 years in prison.
In a statement on Monday night, The Epoch Times told the BBC that it “will and will continue to cooperate fully with any investigation into the allegations against Mr. Guan.”
“Although Mr. Guan is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the company has suspended him until this matter is resolved,” the news agency reported.
He did not answer specific questions about the “Make Money Online” team mentioned by prosecutors.
The BBC was unable to contact Mr Guin.
In a 12-page indictment, federal prosecutors detailed a scheme that allegedly began around 2020.
According to prosecutors, the plan was simple: members of the Make Money Online (MMO) team would purchase criminal proceeds with cryptocurrency at a discount and then transfer the proceeds to a bank account held by an entity affiliated with the newspaper.
The illicit proceeds were ultimately funneled back into The Epoch Times’ accounts through “tens of thousands of tiered transactions,” including through prepaid debit cards and financial accounts opened using stolen identity information.
The scheme was designed to inflate The Epoch Times’ profits over a period of years, funneling tens of millions of dollars to the paper, according to the indictment.
Around the same time Guan came up with the plan, the media company’s internal accounts showed its annual revenue had ballooned by about 410%, from $15 million in 2019 to about $62 million the following year.
When the bank asked Guan where the sudden increase in funds was coming from, he lied and said it came from “donations,” according to prosecutors.
Guan was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of bank fraud.
Prosecutors noted that the charges “are not related to the media company.” [the Epoch Times’] “Reporting activities”
Founded in 2000, The Epoch Times began as a small, low-budget newspaper distributed free of charge in New York City.
It was started by Chinese Americans who belonged to a religious group called Falun Gong.
Since then, it has grown to become one of the most influential conservative news outlets in the United States, a hub for conspiracy theories, right-wing misinformation and fierce opposition to the Chinese Communist Party.
