Politico | How renegade Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui became a centre of Washington intrigue
- Guo Wengui allegedly offered a pair of conservative operatives US$9 million for dirt on his enemies’ porn habits and out-of-wedlock children. Now he’s suing
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Ben Schreckinger on politico.com on June 7, 2019.
A billionaire at the centre of US-China tensions is waging a mysterious legal battle against two Washington conservatives over a private espionage deal gone bad.
The fight touches on a pair of think tanks, a senator’s widow and the capital’s tight-knit group of China hardliners, adding a new chapter to an international saga that has divided the Trump administration and the president’s external allies.
It began when a firm tied to the billionaire, real estate magnate Guo Wengui, allegedly hired a private intelligence firm to dig up dirt on Chinese nationals – including their bank records, porn habits and any illegitimate children – then sued, saying the firm failed to deliver.
In turn, the intelligence firm has claimed Guo’s side gave it a thumb drive loaded with sophisticated malware and that he sought information on people whose records were deemed sensitive by the US government.
The continuing suit, the details of which are reported here for the first time, deepens the already considerable mystique surrounding the billionaire businessman.
An ally of Steve Bannon’s and a fugitive from Chinese authorities, Guo now lives in New York. His presence in the US has exacerbated tensions between China’s ruling Communist Party and the administration of President Donald Trump.
Watch: China’s hunt for Guo Wengui in 2017
The case also offers a rare behind-the-curtain glimpse at the tactics of 21st century geopolitical intrigue, where it is increasingly common for deep-pocketed clients with political agendas to pay firms with government contacts and cyber know-how to obtain people’s sensitive private information – and then use it to destroy them.
The details of the suit, which is being waged in federal court in the Southern District of New York, read more like a spy novel than a dry legal document.
Guo, who goes by Miles Kwok in the US, built a sizeable fortune in real estate in China before apparently running afoul of the country’s government and fleeing in 2014.
A year later, he came to the US, where he is seeking asylum while he lives in an opulent Manhattan flat and publicises claims of corruption against Chinese government officials.
In early 2018, the Guo-linked firm hired Strategic Vision, an obscure company led by Washington-area executive French Wallop, to dig up information on several targets, whom the suit does not name.
According to a court filing by Wallop’s firm, Guo enlisted it “to perform research and analytics on numerous Chinese Nationals whom Mr. Guo and his undisclosed Chinese associates suspected to be engaged in activities in the United States and elsewhere that are inconsistent with their standing in the Chinese Communist Party and/or the laws of the United States.”
In addition to Wallop, J Michael Waller acted as a representative of Strategic Vision, according to a letter the firm submitted to the court.
Then Chinese officials travelling to the US on transit visas, which did not permit them to conduct government business, visited Guo at his flat.
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Casino magnate Steve Wynn, a long-time Trump confidant with business interests in China, reportedly hand-delivered the president a letter from the Chinese government requesting Guo’s handover, though Wynn’s firm has denied it.
According to one person who knows the people involved, it was in the context of this battle over his fate that Guo sought dirt on Chinese nationals. He wanted, this person said, to ingratiate himself with US authorities by offering them intelligence, financed from his own fortune, in a bid to show he could be useful.
In January 2018, a Hong Kong firm tied to Guo, Eastern Profit, signed a contract with Strategic Vision US. It is rare for the details of private espionage agreements to see the light of day, but Strategic Vision attached its five-page agreement as an exhibit to a counterclaim it lodged in response to the suit.
The contract promises US$9 million in exchange for a year’s worth of snooping on 10 unnamed individuals – referred to in the document as “fish” – calling for details on everything from their movements to financial records to sensitive personal information.
That includes details on a “subject's family, extramarital affairs, children born out of wedlock” as well as their “pornography” and their use of “‘dating’ or sexual services apps.”
According to the Guo-linked firm’s complaint, Strategic Vision said it had a former NSA agent on staff and said it had worked “for Republican politicians, a Middle Eastern prince and a politician belonging to the opposition party in Russia.”
Guo’s side also alleged that Strategic Vision provided a “sample report, which appeared to show that Strategic Vision could enter into banking systems and find evidence of money laundering.” But, the complaint alleges, after Guo advanced Strategic Vision an initial US$1 million payment, it discovered the firm did not have the capabilities it claimed.
Not long after, Eastern Profit sued Strategic Vision. The case remained under seal for several months, keeping it from public view. Though much of the court record has now been unsealed, parts of the case remain under a protective order that prevents sensitive details from being revealed.
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In a countersuit, Strategic Vision accused Guo and his representatives of a variety of troubling actions.
The firm, which denied most of Eastern Profit’s allegations, claimed that when a representative of Guo’s provided a thumb drive with information on his chosen surveillance targets – Chinese officials whom Guo allegedly suspected of wrongdoing – the thumb drive turned out to be loaded with sophisticated malware.
After the firm complained, it says it received three new thumb drives from Guo’s side, one of which also contained malware.
According to the counterclaim, which has been dismissed without prejudice, Guo was introduced to Strategic Vision by Lianchao Han, a dissident activist and visiting fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute.
But, it alleges, Guo later told the firm that Han could not be trusted. Instead, Guo allegedly told the firm to communicate with his assistant, whom Guo “oddly advised was a member of the Chinese Communist Party who also could not be trusted.” Han did not respond to requests for comment.
The firm also alleged that, when it began researching its targets, it discovered they “had been designated by the US Department of State under the Obama administration as ‘Records Protected’ people, meaning that information concerning their status and activities was not subject to disclosure under any circumstances.
Strategic Vision learned that attempting to research subjects known to be 'Records Protected' could be a criminal activity.”
Watch: fugitive Guo Wengui shows off new Manhattan penthouse
It is not clear to what exactly the “Records Protected” designation refers. The State Department did not respond to questions about the term, and several former top legal advisers at State said they were not familiar with it.
“I have never heard of a State Department ‘records protected’ designation per se,” wrote Brian Egan, a partner at the law firm Steptoe who served as the department’s top legal adviser at the end of Barack Obama’s administration.
“I am also having a hard time imagining a circumstance in which a private person or company could be prosecuted for merely attempting to research information about a particular individual.”
A lawyer for Eastern Profit, Zachary Grendi, forwarded a request for comment to Daniel Podhaskie, a lawyer for Guo’s family office, who declined to comment. A lawyer for Strategic Vision, Mark Berube, did not respond to requests for comment. Waller declined to comment on the record.
The circumstances of the lawsuit are just one of the many mysteries swirling around Guo. Many basic details of his biography, including his exact age, remain hazy.
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He was born roughly 50 years ago, reportedly in the coastal Shandong Province in eastern China – or, he has claimed, in Jilin Province in the country’s north – and made a fortune in real estate, benefiting from the construction boom around the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Guo appears to owe his rise in part to his relationship with a top official at China’s Ministry of State Security.
By that point, Guo had already fled China.
Since arriving in the US, Guo has constantly irritated the ruling party, spouting a steady stream of salacious allegations about corruption and other official wrongdoing.
Ensconced in New York, the renegade businessman set up Guo Media to amplify his campaign against the Communist Party and often dispenses his accusations via video live-stream while going about his billionaire lifestyle – including from the deck of his US$20 million yacht.
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Guo’s bombastic style and real estate background have prompted comparisons to Trump.
Guo’s lawsuit against Strategic Vision could prove awkward for Washington’s small community of China hardliners.
Leaked audio indicates fugitive Guo Wengui wants to extend US stay
While members of the committee are united on China, they are divided on Guo.
Both Waller, who is fighting Guo, and Bannon, the billionaire’s closest ally in the US, are members of the committee. The group also includes Gaffney, whose think tank employs Waller, and Han, who introduced Guo to Strategic Vision, only to have Guo allegedly turn around and badmouth Han as untrustworthy.
But as the dispute winds its way through court, the committee is presenting a united front. Gaffney said he was not aware of any internal strife the suit had caused within the group.
Bannon declined to comment on the record. He maintains warm relations with Guo, whom he calls “Miles” and has met dozens of times. The lawsuit has done nothing to slow the pair’s crusade against Beijing.
“The Chinese people are being suppressed and enslaved,” Bannon, dressed all in black, declared.
Guo, in a tailored blue suit, smiled and gestured expressively. On an iPad, Guo showed Bannon messages he said came from Chinese citizens.
“All of these messages are to express love to Mr Bannon,” Guo said. “They all tell you that they love you, Mr Bannon.”
Despite his aggressive campaign against Beijing, Guo remains a puzzle to China-watchers, with some supporting his asylum hopes and others remaining suspicious of his motives.
Others say he has already proven useful to the US. “I’ve interviewed him, and he has sensitive knowledge of high-level Chinese Communist politics,” said Michael Pillsbury, a fluent Mandarin speaker who spent decades as a China analyst in the federal government and now serves as a top outside adviser to Trump on the country.
“I also don’t think he should be returned to China.”
As Trump and Xi head into an expected meeting later this month at the G20 summit in Japan to hash out differences over trade policy, Guo remains in the background as a lingering wrinkle in US-China relations – and a lingering mystery.