Federal prosecutors say that Weidong "Bill" Guan and several others at Epoch used a combination of cryptocurrency, prepaid debit cards, fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits and stolen personal identification information to conduct the heist.
In the end, tens of millions of dollars were transferred to various bank accounts associated with the conservative global news outlet.
Guan, 61, was recently arrested. He is being charged in U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of bank fraud.
A court notice shows that Guan was arrested Sunday morning, which was followed by a not guilty plea occurring the following Monday before a federal magistrate judge in New York City.
Guan was released on a $3 million personal recognizance bond. His travel is now restricted to certain parts of New York and New Jersey.
(Related: Speaking of money laundering, did you know that Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and his cronies stole at least $400 million from U.S. taxpayers in 2022 alone?)
Epoch's criminal revenue boost
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams issued a statement about Guan that says he "conspired with others to benefit himself, the media company and its affiliates by laundering tens of millions of dollars in fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits and other crime proceeds."
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"When banks raised questions about the funds, Guan allegedly lied repeatedly and falsely claimed that the funds came from legitimate donations to the media company," Williams further said.
Interestingly, The Epoch Times is not mentioned even once in the indictment. We know Guan's association with the company based on the nonprofit media company's most recent tax return, which was filed in late 2023.
According to prosecutors, Guan's money laundering scheme benefited "a multinational media company headquartered in Manhattan, New York," this referring to The Epoch Times headquarters on West 28th Street in Manhattan.
Guan and his co-conspirators' scheme resulted in a massive revenue jump for Epoch, which went from "approximately $15 million to approximately $62 million" between 2019 and 2020.
In 2019, Epoch reported program revenue of $15.5 million. The following year, that tax-exempt figure jumped to $62.7 million, according to publicly available IRS nonprofit tax returns.
Guan, who lives in Secaucus, N.J., managed Epoch's "Make Money Online team," which was in charge of scheming how to purchase "crime proceeds" and transfer them to various bank accounts linked to the media outlet.
"From 2020 to 2024, the team allegedly used a crypto platform to buy tens of millions of dollars in crime proceeds at discounted rates, of 70 to 80 cents on the dollar, in exchange for cryptocurrency," reported CNBC about the matter.
"The crime proceeds, which came from sources including 'fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits,' were loaded onto tens of thousands of prepaid debit cards," prosecutors alleged.
Once the crime proceeds were purchased, Guan and his co-conspirators allegedly used an array of stolen personally identifiable information to open accounts that facilitated transfer of the loot to the intended bank accounts.
Prosecutors say that the criminal proceeds were often laundered through Guan's own personal bank and crypto accounts. He and his co-conspirators also lied to banks and other entities about the sources of these funds.
In a press release, the Department of Justice (DoJ) indicated that the charges against Guan "do not relate to the Media Company's newsgathering activities."
If convicted, Guan faces a maximum sentence of 30 years for each of the bank fraud counts , as well as a 20-year maximum sentence for the conspiracy.
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