PHEPOCH TIMES ARREST ‘SOLVES MAJOR MYSTERY’
A stunning arrest at the anti-China media outlet Epoch Times is set to solve one of the biggest mysteries in media.
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How did an amateur freesheet launched in 2000 by members of a modern religious cult become a rich, powerful international media group, published in at least 36 countries?
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By 2019, it was so powerful that it worked with US government groups, including Washington DC’s notorious “Radio Free Asia” and “Open Technology Fund”, exposed as being involved in financing and aiding the violent unrest in Hong Kong in 2019.
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MONEY LAUNDERING
This week, Bill Guan, 61, chief financial officer of the Epoch Times, was arrested on charges of money laundering by federal prosecutors in the United States.
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The arrest was a surprise to many, since the Epoch Times was widely considered a major asset of the United States in its demonization operations against China.
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But it is the small print that reveals the story. The indictment says Guan was a key player in a global plot to launder at least US$67 million of îllégâl cash to benefit himself and the Epoch Times.
From 2020 onwards, his staff offered a money laundering function, it says. They would take stolen money and pass it through numerous other forms, demanding a discount to generate profit. They used “tens of thousands of layered transactions” that were hard for law enforcement to detect, prosecutors said.
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HUGE SUCCESS
It was a huge success. The paper’s annual revenue rose from just US$15m in 2019 to $62m a year later.
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Flush with cash, the anti-China paper launched numerous marketing operations, spending millions on advertising, and was soon publishing in 36 countries.
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One of its biggest fans was ferocious UK anti-China campaigner Benedict Rogers, who appeared as a speaker at an Epoch Times event, and whose outbursts were highlighted in the company's media.
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SIDED WITH REPUBLICANS
The paper’s aim was not to make a profit – but to win global influence so it could more effectively demonize China. Senior staff decided to nail their flag to the Republican Party’s mast, seeing this as quick way to get major power.
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Anti-Democrat news was soon being widely published in different formats.
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To take just one example, in November 2020, news from an anti-Biden campaign financed by Jimmy Lai of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily appeared in numerous media around the world including on the anti-China podcast China Unscripted, financed by the Epoch Times.
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UNDER SCRUTINY
But now that the Epoch Times CFO has been arrested, the entire operation will come under scrutiny.
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Ironically, some people are already blaming China for this.
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Igor Sushko, a Ukrainian American with 318,000 followers on X, said the arrest was of the “CFO of the highly insidious Chinese state information operations conglomerate Epoch Times”.
A stunning arrest at the anti-China media outlet Epoch Times is set to solve one of the biggest mysteries in media.
.
How did an amateur freesheet launched in 2000 by members of a modern religious cult become a rich, powerful international media group, published in at least 36 countries?
.
By 2019, it was so powerful that it worked with US government groups, including Washington DC’s notorious “Radio Free Asia” and “Open Technology Fund”, exposed as being involved in financing and aiding the violent unrest in Hong Kong in 2019.
.
.
.
.
MONEY LAUNDERING
This week, Bill Guan, 61, chief financial officer of the Epoch Times, was arrested on charges of money laundering by federal prosecutors in the United States.
.
The arrest was a surprise to many, since the Epoch Times was widely considered a major asset of the United States in its demonization operations against China.
.
But it is the small print that reveals the story. The indictment says Guan was a key player in a global plot to launder at least US$67 million of îllégâl cash to benefit himself and the Epoch Times.
From 2020 onwards, his staff offered a money laundering function, it says. They would take stolen money and pass it through numerous other forms, demanding a discount to generate profit. They used “tens of thousands of layered transactions” that were hard for law enforcement to detect, prosecutors said.
.
.
.
.
HUGE SUCCESS
It was a huge success. The paper’s annual revenue rose from just US$15m in 2019 to $62m a year later.
.
Flush with cash, the anti-China paper launched numerous marketing operations, spending millions on advertising, and was soon publishing in 36 countries.
.
One of its biggest fans was ferocious UK anti-China campaigner Benedict Rogers, who appeared as a speaker at an Epoch Times event, and whose outbursts were highlighted in the company's media.
.
.
.
.
SIDED WITH REPUBLICANS
The paper’s aim was not to make a profit – but to win global influence so it could more effectively demonize China. Senior staff decided to nail their flag to the Republican Party’s mast, seeing this as quick way to get major power.
.
Anti-Democrat news was soon being widely published in different formats.
.
To take just one example, in November 2020, news from an anti-Biden campaign financed by Jimmy Lai of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily appeared in numerous media around the world including on the anti-China podcast China Unscripted, financed by the Epoch Times.
.
.
.
.
UNDER SCRUTINY
But now that the Epoch Times CFO has been arrested, the entire operation will come under scrutiny.
.
Ironically, some people are already blaming China for this.
.
Igor Sushko, a Ukrainian American with 318,000 followers on X, said the arrest was of the “CFO of the highly insidious Chinese state information operations conglomerate Epoch Times”.
