Miles Guo Sentenced to 30 Years for $1 Billion Fraud Spanning Crypto, Media, and Real Estate - Unchained

A federal judge sentenced Chinese businessman Miles Guo to 30 years in prison Tuesday for orchestrating what U.S. prosecutors described as more than $1 billion in fraudulent schemes perpetrated over five years against thousands of victims across the United States and abroad.

Guo, 57, also known as Ho Wan Kwok and several other aliases, had been convicted by a jury in July 2024 on counts including racketeering, securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering, all arising from a web of schemes that used his GTV Media Group and related ventures as vehicles.

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The fraud included Himalaya Coin, or H-Coin, a crypto token Guo promoted to prospective buyers by falsely claiming it was 20% backed by gold and that the operation would cover 100% of investment losses. It was not. Guo pulled in roughly $500 million in investments through the scheme. He was also convicted of using proceeds from the broader fraud enterprise to fund his personal lifestyle, including the purchase of a New Jersey mansion and a fleet of luxury vehicles. The judge ordered him to forfeit nearly $900 million in proceeds along with the real estate and several cars, including a Rolls Royce Phantom and a Bugatti Chiron.

Deputy U.S. Attorney Sean Buckley said Guo “exploited the trust that thousands had placed in him for his own greed.”

Guo has close ties to former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon, who was arrested in 2020 on a separate federal fraud charge while aboard a 150-foot yacht Guo owned. Trump pardoned Bannon for that federal case in 2021. Bannon was later charged at the state level in New York and pleaded guilty in 2025, avoiding prison. He was not charged in Guo’s case.

Guo had been a self-imposed exile from China since leaving in 2014. He built a media and political persona in the U.S. partly through his association with Bannon and MAGA-adjacent circles, a profile that helped him attract followers and investors into the schemes that became the basis for his conviction.

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