Prosecutor tells jury that self-exiled wealthy Chinese businessman cheated thousands of $1 billion

NEW YORK (AP) — A self-exiled wealthy Chinese businessman became an internet sensation and conned thousands of people worldwide into sending him $1 billion, enabling him to spend lavishly on a mansion, two yachts and even a $35,000 mattress, a prosecutor told a New York jury Friday at the start of his fraud trial.

Guo Wengui, 57, promised his online followers that they’d get rich before he blew their investments on a lavish lifestyle and risky investments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Micah Fergenson said.

He said Guo “ran a simple con on a grand scale.”

“He lived a billionaire’s lifestyle from money he stole from people he tricked and cheated,” Fergenson said.

But defense attorney Sabrina Shroff said Guo was not guilty of any of the dozen charges lodged against him since his March 2023 arrest, a decade after he left China in 2014 during a crackdown on corruption that ensnared individuals close to him, including a topo intelligence official.

She promised jurors trial developments that would be “both surprising and eye opening” and warned them not to let ornaments of Guo’s wealth cloud their judgment since Guo had been wealthy for a long time after making a fortune along with his seven brothers on real estate in China.

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