Exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui says he would be worse off if he fled US
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who was arrested in New York earlier this month on fraud charges, asked to be released on a US$25 million (S$33 million) bond.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
NEW YORK – Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who was arrested in New York in March on fraud charges,
Guo, also known as Kwok Ho Wan, asked to be released on a US$25 million (S$33 million) bond, arguing that he is not a flight risk.
He noted that he has not left the US since 2017, when he sought political asylum in the country.
He argued that fleeing would endanger him more, as it would expose him to the Communist Party of China that has long targeted him and his family.
“Mr Kwok likely would face a fate far worse than incarceration in the United States should he attempt to flee,” Guo’s lawyers wrote in a letter on Friday to the judge overseeing his case.
Guo, who is detained in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, New York, has a bail hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
He and his financial adviser Je Kin Ming were charged with conspiracy, wire and securities fraud, and money laundering.
Prosecutors claim the two conspired to cheat thousands of victims out of more than US$1 billion using “a series of complex fraudulent and fictitious businesses and investment opportunities”, according to the indictment.
More than US$300 million of the proceeds were alleged to have benefited them and their families.
Guo’s lawyers argue that he has no intention of jeopardising his relationship with his wife and daughter, who live in Connecticut, by abandoning them in the US.
They also assert that he is not a danger to the community, given that the proposed conditions of his release would include house arrest, GPS monitoring and restrictions on his ability to engage in financial transactions.
Guo’s lawyers cited several other defendants accused of fraud who have been released on bail, including FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried, who is subject to home detention and allowed to use a cellphone, while posting a US$250 million bond.
“None of the above defendants were denied bail even though they face similar charges and share many of the same attributes that the government asserts warrant Mr Kwok’s detention,” Guo’s lawyers wrote. BLOOMBERG
