Guo Wengui

Guo Wengui, also known as Miles Guo, Ho Wan Kwok, Miles Kwok, Brother Seven, Guo Haoyun and The Principal,¹⁾ is a Chinese billionaire based in New York.

Guo is the registered or functional owner of a number of companies including GTV Media Group, G|CLUBS, G|Fashion and G | Music, and is an investor in GETTR.

He is the father of Qiang Guo, owner of Saraca Media Group.²⁾

Guo grew up in the farming village of Xicaoying with seven siblings.³⁾

Guo was imprisoned in 1989, and upon his release, took a job with a Hong Kong entrepreneur named Xia Ping.

In 1993, Guo ran a company called Big Boss Furniture. He then joined a project to build the first skyscraper hotel in Zhengzhou, the Yuda International Trade Centre.⁴⁾ Around 2002, he relocated to Beijing.

According to the New Yorker, Guo used sexual blackmail against Beijing's vice-mayor Liu Zhihua in order to secure a permit to build beside the site of the then-upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics. The blackmail material was allegedly provided to Guo by a Chinese “spymaster” named Ma Jian. The plot of land was used to build the Pangu Plaza.

Guo reportedly travelled several times to meet the Dalai Lama on behalf of China's Ministry of State Security.⁵⁾ He allegedly courted former British Prime Minister Tony Blair since they met in 2008, purchasing five thousand copies of Cherie Blair's autobiography in 2009 and donating to Blair's charities.^{6) 7)}

Shortly after the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Guo invited Orville Schell, Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society, for a dinner at the Pangu Plaza. He also reportedly had dinners with former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, and met with Kim Jong-un on a trip to North Korea.⁸⁾

In or around 2013, Tony Blair agreed to introduce Guo to members of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family, who allegedly gave Guo $3 billion.⁹⁾

In late 2014, Guo accused a rival named Li You of corruption. The conflict escalated into public view, bringing scrutiny onto Guo's relationship with the Chinese government and intelligence apparatus. On January 16, 2015, the Communist Party of China announced that Guo's intelligence colleague Ma Jian was under investigation. Guo fled to London, England via Hong Kong, eventually landing in New York City.

In 2015, Guo purchased a $68 million penthouse suite at Sherry-Netherland tower in the Upper East Side of New York City. He reportedly provided a reference letter from UBS and a personal recommendation from Tony Blair.¹⁰⁾ He allegedly provided intelligence on China to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and to a lesser extent, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Guo reportedly attempted to hire Jeh Johnson, former Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as his lawyer.

At some point prior to Donald Trump becoming the Republican candidate for President of the United States, Guo became a member of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

News reports in March 2015 suggested that Guo and a Chinese intelligence officer named Ma Jian had engaged in “surveillance, blackmail, and political influence to amass fortunes and evade scrutiny.” Despite initially denying reports of intelligence ties, he later acknowledged that he was affiliated in some form with the Ministry of State Security in China, completing tasks for the agency under the codename “Wu Nan.”

In 2016, Chinese authorities seized ownership of Guo's Pangu Plaza tower. According to CNN, a court in Beijing later listed it for sale on Alibaba, selling it “for just under 5.19 billion yuan,” equivalent to $734 million USD.¹¹⁾

In January 2017, Guo created an account on Twitter and began conducting interviews in which he accused Chinese leaders of corruption. One target in particular was Wang Qishan, who sued Guo for defamation in response. In April 2017, at the request of the Chinese government, Interpol issued a “red notice” for his arrest.¹²⁾

In June 2017, vice-minister of public security Sun Lijun made contact with Steve Wynn, finance chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Sun asked for assistance in returning Guo to China, and Wynn reportedly agreed to raise the issue with President Trump.

In August 2017, Guo met with Steve Bannon at the Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington, D.C. In 2018, Bannon signed a year-long deal for consulting services in exchange for $1 million. In late 2018, the pair launched the Rule of Law Foundation and the Rule of Law Society.^{13) 14)}

In April 2020, Guo and Bannon co-founded GTV Media Group.¹⁵⁾

On June 4, 2020, Guo and Bannon live-streamed an announcement of the launch of the New Federal State of China.¹⁶⁾

Guo was an early investor in GETTR through a “family foundation.”¹⁷⁾

In November 2021, Guo appeared in a music video promoting Himalaya Coin, the native token of cryptocurrency exchange Himalaya Exchange, with which Guo had a business relationship.^{18) 19)} He shared a quote from Bannon describing the success of the new coin as “monumental” on GETTR.²⁰⁾

On March 6, 2023, an indictment was unsealed accusing Guo of a number of crimes including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering.²¹⁾ He was listed as co-defendant alongside William Je.

Guo was arrested on March 15, 2023 on charges of fraud related to GTV Media Group and Himalaya Exchange.²²⁾

In April 2023, Steve Bannon suggested that he, U.S. President Donald Trump and Guo were all indicted for criticizing the Chinese government.²³⁾

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