Add The New York Post on Google A slick Chinese fraudster’s “stunning” $1.3 billion scam to fund his lavish Big Apple lifestyle landed him 30 years in prison Monday — but that didn’t stop hundreds of his fans from still flocking to court.
Miles Guo, 57, would peddle an anti-communist China schtick to woo sympathetic investors to invest in his schemes — which bought him goodies such as a $37 million yacht, $26 million New Jersey mansion, a luxe apartment overlooking Central Park and bizarre splurges including two $36,000 mattresses, authorities said.
“Mr Guo intended to deceive his victims and take their money for his own financial gain,” Manhattan federal Judge Analisa Torres said at the convicted grifter’s sentencing.
Convicted scammer Miles Guo lived large in a luxe apartment overlooking Central Park before his arrest on fraud charges. Helayne Seidman Guo was ordered to forfeit a whopping $889 million of his ill-gotten gains as well as spend three decades behind bars.
The fraudster meanwhile maintained his loyal following throughout, with more than 250 of his supporters packed the courtroom and two overflow rooms at the courthouse to hear his fate.
But more than 600 of his victims also wrote to the court in advance of his sentencing to describe how the scammer lured them into making “investments” that vanished.
“This fraud destroyed my life and my family,” victim Wei Chen said at Monday’s hearing.
Chen testified at Guo’s July 2024 trial that she is around $1 million in debt because of Guo luring her into investing in various sham media and cryptocurrency ventures.
Torres slammed the “stunning breadth of Mr Guo’s fraudulent schemes” before announcing his sentence.
Guo has shown “no remorse for the harm he has caused for so many people,” the judge added.
A jury found Guo guilty of racketeering and various fraud charges at a July 2024 trial. REUTERS A federal jury convicted Guo of racketeering conspiracy, fraud raps and money laundering after the feds charged him with bilking thousands of supporters over a five-year span.
Guo had amassed a large online following after starting two nonprofits in 2018 that pushed his purported agenda of being critical of the Chinese Communist Party, prosecutors said.
But “Miles Guo did not lead a movement… he led a criminal enterprise, strengthened through violence, through threats, through fear,” prosecutor Ryan Finkel told the court Monday.
Guo also boasted political connections, including a friendship with former White House adviser Steve Bannon. Trump administration insiders told The Post last year that they feared Guo would use his connections to secure a pardon, but no such pardon has surfaced, at least to date.
Wearing a tan jail outfit and gesticulating wildly, Guo addressed the court with a rambling statement Monday afternoon after his sentencing was delayed for hours. The delay was caused by Guo claiming that he had suffered an illness, Finkel said in court.
Standing at the defense table, the convict claimed that he had “fainted” at the Metropolitan Detention Center early in the morning and saw a doctor after vomiting blood, before a “mysterious woman” arrived and transported him to the Manhattan courthouse.
Guo did not directly address the fraud charges he was convicted of in his speech and told the judge that he would appeal the jury’s verdict.
The convicted scammer’s fans had packed the courtroom to the gills in a show of support.
“We are all supporters here,” said 40-year-old Shawy Miles, who said he “escaped” from China in 2023 and moved to the Big Apple, where he delivers packages for Amazon.
“In China there are millions and millions who support Guo,” Miles told The Post. “He wanted to take down the Communist party, that is why he is here. He is being set up. All the evidence was false. It’s set up, it’s a trap by the CCP!”
College professor Shu Pingfeng, 63, said he traveled all the way from Marsaille, France, to support Guo.
“Miles is a hero! He is our hero. Our leader. He is trying to get freedom and democracy and rule of law for Chinese people in China,” he told The Post.
One supporter, after falsely telling Torres she was a “victim” of Guo, was briefly able to address the court — declaring that “We are here to witness America’s funeral” — before Torres cut her off.
“You are making a political statement unrelated to his various political conduct,” the judge said.
As she was escorted out of the courtroom Monday, shouts and a smattering of applause could be heard from spectators.
