分类: U.S.
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密码保护:Exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui hit with new RICO conspiracy charge 2024.1.4 ☑Press ☑U.S.,美国
Federal prosecutors in New York on Thursday added an expansive racketeering count against Chinese financier Guo Wengui, who is accused of orchestrating a $1 billion fraud conspiracy.
Wengui, an associate of American conservative media strategist Steve Bannon, was arrested in March 2023 at his apartment in the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in Manhattan, where a fire subsequently broke out later that day as FBI agents were still searching it.
Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have accused Wengui — also known as Miles Guo and Ho Wan Kwok — of carrying out a complex conspiracy to defraud thousands of his online followers out of over $1 billion dollars by lying to prospective investors and promising them outsized returns if they invested, or provided money to his Chinese media platform GTV, and other companies, including Himalaya Farm Alliance, G CLUBS, and the Himalaya Exchange.
Wengui’s first indictment included criminal counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, securities fraud, international money laundering and obstruction of justice.
The superseding indictment unsealed Thursday morning adds an additional count of racketeering conspiracy under Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute, which carries a 20 year maximum sentence and forfeiture of any ill-gotten gains from the criminal activity.
➤周四,纽约联邦检察官对郭文贵增加了一项敲诈勒索罪名,郭文贵被指控策划了一场 10 亿美元的欺诈计划。
纽约南区检察官指控文贵(又名文贵先生和何万国)实施了一项复杂的阴谋,通过向潜在投资者撒谎并向他们承诺巨额资金,诈骗了数千名在线粉丝超过 10 亿美元。
文贵的第一份起诉书包括共谋、电信欺诈、证券欺诈、国际洗钱和妨碍司法公正等刑事罪名。
周四上午公布的替代起诉书根据诈骗影响和腐败组织 (RICO) 法规增加了一项共谋敲诈勒索罪名,该法规最高可判处 20 年徒刑,并没收犯罪活动中的任何不义之财。
检察官表示,从 2018 年到至少 2023 年 3 月,文贵及其同谋“通过一系列复杂的欺诈和虚构业务和投资机会,将数十个相互关联的实体联系起来,实施了一项犯罪活动,这使得被告及其同谋共谋索取、洗钱和挪用受害者资金。”
据检察官称,他误导了一种名为“H-Coin”、“Himalaya Coin”或“HCN”的加密资产证券的潜在投资者,错误地声称 H-Coin 的 20% 价值是由黄金支持的,并且他将亲自赔偿投资者的任何潜在损失。
联邦 RICO 法案起源于 1970 年,作为打击有组织犯罪的工具。该法律使检察官能够针对犯罪组织内的高层人士,而不仅仅是处理肮脏工作的低层人员。
➤老美检察官起诉书(49页)
SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
V.
HO WAN KWOK,
a/k/a “Miles Guo,”
a/k/a “Miles Kwok,”
a/k/a “Guo Wengui,”
a/k/a “Brother Seven,”
a/k/a “The Principal,”
a/k/a “Boss,”
KINMINGJE,
a/k/a “William Je,”
a/k/a “Yu Jianming,” and
YANPINGWANG,
a/k/a “Yvette,”
a/k/a “Y,” -
密码保护:Bitconned Is a Cryptocurrency Cautionary Tale 2024.1.1 ☑Press ☑U.S.,美国
Inexperienced co-founders, a non-existent product, and a mysterious CEO who seems to be MIA — what could possibly go wrong? Bitconned, the new documentary from director Bryan Storkel (The Pez Outlaw), goesinside the cryptocurrency craze of the late 2010s and unravels the story of Centra Tech, a crypto company dreamt up by a couple of South Florida hustlers with a knack for Photoshop and a penchant for living large.
“Crypto [was] just this new unfound territory, completely unregulated by the SEC,” explains Centra co-founder Ray Trapani in the doc. “Anytime you find a market like that, you just have to figure out how to exploit [it].”
Trapani and his cohorts managed to successfully do just that for a time, raising millions of unregulated fundraising dollars along the way. But when a New York Times reporter — and eventually, the authorities — dared to start asking questions, Centra’s web of lies unraveled. Using original interviews with Trapani, his family, and his co-conspirators, as well as a victim who poured money into Centra and the investigators who eventually brought the company’s malfeasance to light, Bitconned shines a light on just how easy it can be to create the illusion of a legitimate enterprise. After all, what is a scam if not an entrepreneurial venture situated firmly on the wrong side of the law?
➤Bitconned是一个加密货币的警示故事
继2022年的《别信任何人:虚拟货币悬案》之后,Netflix 2日又推出了一部有关加密货币诈骗案的纪录片《加密货币大骗局》(Bitconned)。该片深入探讨了2017年ICO(首次代币发行)热潮背后的故事,揭露了「假签帐卡公司」Centra Tech如何诈骗超过2,500万美元。
纪录片特别聚焦于共同创办人Ray Trapani的特殊性格,展示他如何偷取客户的虚拟货币帐户资金,甚至对被害者进行嘲讽。
Netflix介绍,《加密货币大骗局》主要通过对Centra Tech成员和《纽约时报》记者的采访,追溯了该公司从2017年创立到事迹败露的整个过程。