Federal prosecutors allege that in a “wide-ranging, international scheme,” Guan and others used cryptocurrency to purchase proceeds from insurance policies. Guan used fraud and other illegal means to transfer funds into various accounts related to The Epoch Times, inflating the company’s revenues by about 410 percent, which he claimed were from donations, according to the Department of Justice.
In a statement on Monday, The Epoch Times said it was cooperating with the investigation and had suspended Guan until the matter was resolved.
Prosecutors said the operation was run by an “online money-making” team under Guan’s control, who allegedly used the cryptocurrency to buy criminal proceeds, including “fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance payments,” for 70 to 80 cents on the dollar.
The money was then deposited in bank accounts opened using the stolen identities and transferred to accounts linked to Guan. According to the Department of Justice, The Epoch Times reported.
The Epoch Times was founded by Chinese Americans in 2000 to counter Chinese government propaganda. The paper has long denied any ties to Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned by the Chinese Communist Party, but experts say it is sympathetic to the movement and reflects Falun Gong’s political stance in its reporting on the Chinese government, The Washington Post reported.
The Epoch Times has grown from a free newspaper in New York to a media company with operations across the Western world and Asia. It’s in English and Chinese, but it’s not banned in China.
In 2019, the company was banned from running pro-Trump ads on Facebook after it found they violated the company’s political ads and transparency rules. Opposed The company opposed the ban, saying it had run “highly popular digital marketing campaigns aimed at print newspaper subscribers.”
Ann NBC News investigation That year, the outlet was found to have spent more than $1.5 million over a six-month period to promote thousands of pro-Trump posts, more than any organization outside of Donald Trump’s official campaign. The Epoch Times said the report was “inaccurate.”
