The chief financial officer of news media outlet The Epoch Times has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in a large-scale money laundering scheme.
Federal prosecutors allege Bill Guan, 61, was involved in a global scheme to launder at least $67 million (£52 million) of illicit funds for himself and the Epoch Times newspaper.
According to the indictment, Guan led the media company's “online money making” team, which used cryptocurrency to purchase tens of millions of dollars worth of criminal proceeds.
Guan has yet to plead guilty and, if convicted, could face more than 30 years in prison.
The Epoch Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the BBC was unable to contact Mr Guan.
In a 12-page indictment, federal prosecutors detailed a scheme that allegedly began around 2020.
According to prosecutors, the plan was simple: members of the Make Money Online (MMO) team would purchase criminal proceeds with cryptocurrency at a discount and then transfer the proceeds to a bank account held by an entity affiliated with the newspaper.
The illicit proceeds would ultimately be funneled back into The Epoch Times' accounts through “tens of thousands of tiered transactions,” including prepaid debit cards and financial accounts opened using stolen identity information.
According to the indictment, the scheme worked for years to funnel tens of millions of dollars to the Epoch Times, enriching the paper.
Around the same time Guan came up with the plan, the media company's internal accounts showed its annual revenue had ballooned by about 410%, from $15 million in 2019 to about $62 million the following year.
When the bank asked Guan where the sudden increase in funds was coming from, he lied and said it came from “donations,” according to prosecutors.
Guan was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of bank fraud.
Prosecutors noted that the charges “are not related to the media company.” [The Epoch Times’] “Reporting activities”
Founded in 2000, The Epoch Times began as a small, low-budget newspaper distributed free of charge in New York City.
It was started by Chinese Americans who belonged to a religious group called Falun Gong.
Since then, it has grown to become one of the most influential conservative news outlets in the United States, a hub for conspiracy theories, right-wing misinformation and fierce opposition to the Chinese Communist Party.
They boast social media followers and online audiences in the tens of millions that rival or rival sites like The Daily Caller and Breitbart News.
