A self-exiled billionaire Chinese business tycoon once believed to be among China’s wealthiest men was sentenced to 30 years in a U.S. prison for a massive financial fraud.  How much in money?

     Guo Wengui, who fled China a decade ago and reinvented himself as a U.S.-based Communist Party critic, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan.  Given a chance to speak before hearing his sentence, Guo protested his treatment in jail, saying he fainted and fell down at 5 a.m. Monday. He said doctors at a hospital said he should stay there for treatment, but he was returned to jail and repeatedly vomited on the trip back. He said a doctor visited him in jail before he was brought to thGuo grew so close to conservative political strategist Steve Bannon that they announced a joint initiative to overthrow the Chinese government in 2020. He lived in a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park and had joined President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Florida golf club before his New York arrest and detention without bail three years ago.

     Prosecutors had asked that he serve at least 30 years in prison, saying his “astonishing” fraud from 2018 to 2023 “destroyed hundreds of lives” and left “a wreckage of victims and families who have been devastated financially, emotionally, and psychologically” despite his claims that many followers still trust him.  Prosecutors said in court papers that his ill-gotten riches fueled “a lifestyle of extraordinary excess and indulgence, a gilded life of mansions, yachts, race cars, designer clothes and luxury furnishings.”

     Guo was convicted of nine of 12 criminal charges during a seven-week trial that prosecutors said showcased his deception of thousands of investors in bogus deals that enabled Guo’s lavish lifestyle.e courthouse.       “When I came here, I said I have a stomach ache, I need to go to the bathroom, I don’t feel well,” Guo said through an interpreter.  “The reason I came to the U.S. was to destroy the CCP,” Guo said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.  The judge, in sentencing him, read snippets of letters she received from victims who described losing their life savings and developing fear, severe anxiety and losing family members.  “Mr. Guo preyed on those seeking to bring democracy to China,” Torres said.  She also said that to this day, Guo “takes no responsibility for his actions and instead insists incredibly his conduct caused no loss and harmed no one.” She said he “has called upon supporters to harass and intimidate those who dare to speak out against him.”