In the United States, Chinese businessman arrested over $1 billion cryptocurrency fraud

U.S. authorities arrested a Chinese citizen Miles Guo on charges of orchestrating a cryptocurrency-related fraud amounting to more than $1 billion.

The U.S. Department of Justice notes that Guo is also known by the names Ho Wan Kwok, Miles Kwok, Go Wenqi, Brother Seven and “The Director”.

Officials said that Guo and his associate Kin Min Ji, also known as William Ji, “deceived” thousands of followers into funding an online club called G |CLUBS.

The criminals obtained $262 million through the Himalaya cryptocurrency exchange launched by them. It created the Himalaya Dollar stablecoin and the Himalaya Coin utility token.

Guo and Ji were charged with 12 counts each, carrying a combined potential sentence of 215 years in prison for each defendant. Ji remains at large.

The department said the pair used the funds for personal purposes, including a 50,000-square-foot mansion in New Jersey, a $37 million yacht, a $3.5 million Ferrari, a $62,000 television, and a $53,000 fireplace log holder.

From September 2022 through March 2023, the U.S. government seized about $634 million in 21 banks. Assets owned by Guo and Ji were also seized, including a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roads.

SEC charged the pair with raising $850 million through unregistered and fraudulent offerings.

Separately, the commission noted that Guo obtained hundreds of millions of dollars with the help of Himalaya Coin and the associated Himalaya Dollar. The businessman claimed that the underlying asset is gold-backed and that he would compensate investors for any potential losses.

Earlier in February, the SEC filed charges against Terraform Labs and its CEO Do Kwon for orchestrating a multibillion-dollar securities fraud. The regulator described the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and the LUNA token.