{"id":788,"date":"2024-06-05T00:01:32","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T00:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/05\/cfo-of-epoch-times-arrested-over-accusations-he-laundered-67m-in-unemployment-benefits-and-other-fraud\/"},"modified":"2024-06-05T00:01:32","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T00:01:32","slug":"cfo-of-epoch-times-arrested-over-accusations-he-laundered-67m-in-unemployment-benefits-and-other-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/05\/cfo-of-epoch-times-arrested-over-accusations-he-laundered-67m-in-unemployment-benefits-and-other-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"CFO of Epoch Times arrested over accusations he laundered $67m in unemployment benefits and other fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The chief financial officer of global news outlet The Epoch Times has been arrested and accused of laundering $67m.<\/p>\n<p>Weidong \u2018Bill\u2019 Guan, 61, of New Jersey appeared before a judge in <strong>New York<\/strong> on Monday on money laundering and bank fraud charges after being arrested on Sunday. He pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sdc-site-outbrain sdc-site-outbrain--AR_6\">    <\/div>\n<p>Prosecutors said members of the Epoch Times\u2019 Make Money Online team, which was managed by Guan, used <strong>cryptocurrency<\/strong> to \u201cknowingly purchase tens of millions of dollars in crime proceeds\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This included funds from fraudulently obtained unemployment benefits that were loaded on to prepaid debit cards, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p>Stolen personal information was then used to open accounts as part of the alleged laundering scheme, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad ad--teads\">        <\/div>\n<p>The money was then allegedly laundered again through other bank accounts held by Epoch and Guan\u2019s personal bank and cryptocurrency accounts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Guan suspended<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Assistant Federal Defender Ariel Werner, listed in court records as Guan\u2019s attorney, declined to comment on the charges.<\/p>\n<p>The Epoch Times was not named in the indictment released on Monday, but instead was referred to as a \u201cmultinational media company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, the news organisation said it would cooperate with the federal probe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Epoch Times has a guiding principle that elevates integrity in its dealings above everything else. The company intends to and will fully cooperate with any investigation dealing with the allegations against Mr. Guan,\u201d according to a written statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the interim, although Mr. Guan is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the company has suspended him until this matter is resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors said the charges are not related to the media company\u2019s newsgathering activities.<\/p>\n<p>The media company\u2019s revenues jumped approximately 410% when the alleged money laundering began, from approximately $15 million to $62 million, they said.<\/p>\n<p>Guan allegedly lied to banks when they asked about the increase in transactions and said there was an increase in legitimate donations.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div>This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The chief financial officer of global news outlet The Epoch Times has been arrested and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}