Miles Guo sentenced to 30 years for $1B fraud scheme built on fake crypto and broken promises
Miles Guo is going to prison for three decades. A Manhattan federal court sentenced the Chinese billionaire-in-exile on June 29, 2026, capping a fraud case that touched unregistered securities, a fake crypto exchange, and some truly spectacular personal spending.
Guo, also known as Ho Wan Kwok, was convicted in July 2024 on charges including racketeering and money laundering. The sentence handed down matches the outer limit prosecutors were pushing for.
How a $1 billion scheme actually worked
The fraud ran from 2018 to March 2023, targeting mostly Chinese dissidents and followers of Guo’s political media empire. He pitched three main vehicles to investors: GTV Media Group, a luxury membership program called G|CLUBS, and the Himalaya Exchange, a crypto platform that was, in practice, a vehicle for misappropriation.
A 2020 stock offering through GTV raised $452 million. The Himalaya Exchange pulled in another $262 million, marketed around a token called H-Coin, also known as Himalaya Coin or HCN. Combined, that is over $700 million from just two of the three schemes.
Prosecutors catalogued the spending in detail. A $37 million yacht. A $26 million mansion in New Jersey. A luxury apartment overlooking Central Park. Two mattresses that cost $36,000 each, which somehow made the court filings. Total investor losses exceeded $1 billion, with some estimates placing the full harm closer to $1.3 billion.
The SEC had already flagged Guo’s operation. A civil action related to the illegal GTV stock and digital asset offerings ended in a settlement exceeding $539 million in 2021. That settlement did not slow the scheme down.
The crypto angle that regulators will be watching
Co-defendant Kin Ming Je faced related charges in the same case. Yvette Wang, another associate, received a separate 10-year sentence in January 2025.
Asset recovery efforts are ongoing. The Central Park apartment is reportedly being sold as part of efforts to return funds to defrauded investors.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
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