Epoch Times CFO Charged With $67 Million Crypto Money Laundering Scheme

The Epoch Times news outlet's chief financial officer has been arrested and charged with involvement in a $67 million cryptocurrency transaction.

According to a press release from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, Bill Guan has been charged with two counts of money laundering and two counts of bank fraud. Illegal money.

Guan is accused of masterminding a conspiracy in which the Epoch Times' “make money online” group used millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies, including illegal funds, to load “fraudulent insurance benefits” onto prepaid debit cards.

According to the indictment, the MMO group bought these criminal proceeds at a discount on an anonymous cryptocurrency exchange and transferred the proceeds to bank accounts held by affiliates of Epoch Times.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said the money was funneled through Guan's personal bank and secret cryptocurrency accounts, as well as the Epoch Times accounts, which increased the media organization's internal accounts by 410 percent year-over-year. Income.

About $5.7 million in funds were reportedly transferred to accounts on a second unnamed cryptocurrency platform, with an additional $10.9 million sent to a third (again unnamed) crypto exchange.

According to the lawsuit, cryptocurrency companies have raised concerns about “suspicious financial activity,” with Guan saying that the money came variously from customer subscriptions and “donations” to the company.

The charges are “unrelated to the media organization's news-gathering activities” and “the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” the suit said. Guan faces charges that could send him to prison for a maximum of 80 years.

In the year Founded in 2000, Epoch Times is an international media company affiliated with the Falun Gong religious group, which has grown to be a darling of the American right. The news organization has been accused of peddling misinformation and spreading conspiracy theories, which its representatives have dismissed as “smear”.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.