The fire that broke out in the Sherry-Netherland luxury penthouse of exiled Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui hours after his arrest in a billion-dollar fraud scheme is still under investigation by the FBI, NYPD and FDNY, authorities said Thursday.
The feds arrested Guo at 6 a.m. Wednesday for carrying out a “spreading” fraud conspiracy that saw him solicit over $1 billion in investments for bogus companies of his online followers to splurge on himself and his family members.
Hours later, Guo’s $32.5 million Midtown apartment caught fire, firefighters and federal authorities said.
Federal prosecutors were investigating the cause of the fire, said Nick Biase, a spokesman for Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams.
Guo, 52, whose real name is Ho Wan Kwok, has at least five aliases: Miles Guo, Miles Kwok, Guo Wengui, Brother Seven and The Principal.
Authorities say he used the stolen funds to buy a $37 million megayacht, a 50,000-square-foot mansion in New Jersey, a $3.5 million Ferrari for his son, two mattresses that cost $36,000 each and many other luxury purchases.
At his appearance in Manhattan Federal Court, authorities arrested the Chinese tycoon after he pleaded not guilty to 12 charges related to wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. A lawyer has delayed filing a bail application until the lawyers who will represent Guo in the case arrive in New York.
Guo said little during the proceedings, but was seen smiling broadly and bowing to people sitting on the courtroom verandah, whose relationship to him was unclear.
A woman who identified herself on social media as Guo’s daughter relayed a message from him that read in part: “Rest assured, I am well and very safe.”
Sources at the scene of the two-alarm fire told the Daily News that FBI agents were in the 18th-floor apartment where Guo lives with his wife and two children when it broke out.
FDNY Deputy Deputy Chief Chuck Downey said 30 units and about 150 personnel responded to the fire shortly after noon and brought the fire under control by 1:45 p.m. The bomb squad was also at the scene.
“Fire chiefs are on scene investigating the cause and origin of this fire, and we will likely be in this operation for quite some time. It will be a long operation,” Downey said.
A hotel worker who asked to remain anonymous described Guo as friendly and said he is known for tipping building staff generously.
“It is said that he established it. I don’t know,” the worker speculated. “Two things are correlated, two incidents; they arrested him, before that, maybe he found out that someone was coming and prepared a sabotage? Who knows.
“The FBI is upstairs. Everyone is up. I should have called in sick.
The feds have seized $634 million from 21 different bank accounts related to Guo’s alleged fraud since September, and on Wednesday took into custody a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Road along with him.
The indictment accuses its UK-based financier, Kin Ming Je, who goes by the name William Je, of being the financial architect of the scheme and the main money launderer. Je, 56, is on the run, authorities said.
Guo’s chief of staff, Yvette Wang, also faces charges. Bail for her was set at $5 million.
“(Guo) lied to his victims and promised them big profits” if they invested in his funds, Williams said in a statement.
In 2018, Guo gained a large following online after founding two non-profit organizations. One is the Rule of Law Foundation — Bannon once sat on its board of directors —and the other is called the Rule of Law Society. The Rule of Law Foundation says its goal is to “expose the inherent evil of the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian rule.”
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As Guo’s online following grew, the feds say, he began sharing bogus online money-making opportunities that he claimed would make his followers rich.
The feds say he and his accused associates funneled the money through myriad complex means. The Securities and Exchange Commission also filed civil charges against him on Wednesday, including additional allegations related to a crypto asset called H-Coin.
The billionaire businessman fled China in 2015, reportedly fearing arrest on corruption charges.
His now-impounded yacht “Lady May” made headlines in 2020 when right-wing strategist and Trump adviser Bannon was arrested on board off the coast of Connecticut.
Trump pardoned Bannon of federal charges related to the alleged “We Build the Wall” scam in a last-minute clemency blitz before leaving office. Bannon still faces charges in New York state in the case, which involves a nonprofit organization that claimed to raise money to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.
In December, Mother Jones reported that Guo conspired with Bannon and former New York City mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to spread content recovered from Hunter Biden’s laptop.
