Chinese NYC scammer learns fate for stunning $1.3B fraud as hundreds of fans flock to court
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.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 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....