There has been some talk that former President Donald Trump will be arrested today. If he is, talk of Guo Wengui's arrest will fade into the background. Before it does, though:
If, God forbid, he ever gets another crack at it he will presumably extend pardons far and wide but, last time around, he kept the circle narrow, perhaps to generate incentives for all the grifters in the galaxy o work hard to see that there would be a next time.
Against that background, federal prosecutors in New York recently arrested exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui. On the Trump scorecard, he is a friend-of-a-friend. Steve Bannon, on the other hand, is a friend. Full stop.
Trump, you may remember, signed Bannon's pardon, freeing him from responsibility for the We-Fatten-the-Wall-it-oddly-looks-like-Bannon's-wallet scam: he signed this document in his final hours in office, on the morning of Jan. 20, 2021.
Guo, though, can't count on such help. He was arrested on the 15th of this month in connection with a scheme to defraud his online followers (he is something of a social media star) of more that $1 billion.
The indictment is careful to list a lot of aliases. I've been following most mainstream news coverage in using Guo Wengui as his principal name. The indictment gives Ho Wan Kwok as the principal, and Guo shows up as the third on the list of A/K/As.
The indictment also observes that Kin Ming Je, described as Guo's financier, is also charged and still at large. [I am not being disrespectful in using "Guo," in the Chinese manner that is his family name.] Kin Ming Je is apparently only known as Kin Ming Je.
A note on the relationship between Guo and Bannon: Bannon was arrested, in his pretend-the-money-is-for-a-wall scam, in August 2020, while literally on Guo's yacht, apparently a 150-foot beauty. There is no closer relationship between privileged Bros than to have one Bro arrested while luxuriating on the others' yacht.
Anyway: put the Guo fraud on your list of cases to follow in the months to come. The continued unravelling of this whole circle of grifters is devoutly to be wished. From the Orange central figure outward.
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