Exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui is arrested on $1BN fraud charges by FBI in NYC: ‘Scamster’ with links to Steve Bannon spent millions on mansion, yacht, Lamborghini (and $50K on fireplace log holder)

An exiled Chinese billionaire with links to Steve Bannon has been arrested by the FBI in New York over allegations he masterminded a $1 billion fraud then splashed the cash on a yacht, mansion and other outrageous luxuries.

Guo Wengui was detained by agents on Wednesday morning over an elaborate scam to defraud his legion of online followers through sham investments. He’s expected to appear in court today on 12 charges.

The business magnate, who also uses aliases including Ho Wan Kwok, spent the money on a 50,000-square-foot mansion in New Jersey, a Lamborghini supercar and luxury yacht worth approximately $37 million.

He also splurged on Chinese and Persian rugs worth approximately $978,000, a $62,000 television, a $53,000 fireplace log cradle holder and two mattresses which cost $36,000 each, federal investigators say. 

Prosecutors revealed information about the elaborate fraud on Wednesday along with extraordinary details about the luxuries snapped up by Guo. Guo is charged alongside his financial advisor William Je, a Hong Kong and United Kingdom dual citizen who served as the fraud’s ‘financial architect and key money launderer’.

The pair are said to have convinced investors to give them cash, which they said they’d multiple into a huge return in what prosecutors allege was a classic pyramid scheme.  

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