{"id":"court_sdny_124_2","court":"SDNY","case_no":"23-cr-00118","doc_number":124,"sub_number":2,"doc_type":"ORDER","filed_date":"2023-08-07","title":"![](_page_0_Picture_2.jpeg) This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use of this material are governed by our Subs","summary_zh":"新闻文章——美国诉 Ho Wan Kwok（郭文贵 / Guo Wengui / Miles Guo）案，SDNY 1:23-cr-00118 ECF #124（2023年8月7日立案）。《华尔街日报》2020年7月报道，FBI 正在调查中国流亡商人郭文贵的美国媒体融资来源及其与前特朗普高级顾问 Steve Bannon 的合作关系。","summary_en":"News Article — United States v. Ho Wan Kwok (Guo Wengui / Miles Guo), SDNY 1:23-cr-00118 ECF #124 (filed August 7, 2023). Wall Street Journal article from July 2020 reports FBI investigation into exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui's funding sources for U.S. media operations and his collaboration with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.","body_en":"Case 1:23-cr-00118-AT\n\n![](_page_0_Picture_2.jpeg)\n\nThis copy is for your personal, non-commercial use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.\n\nhttp\n\n◆ WSJ NEWS EXCLUSIVE | U.S.\n\n## FBI Probes Chinese Exile, Including Work With Former Trump Aide Steve Bannon\n\nFeds question source of funds for media company tied to Guo Wengui\n\nBy Aruna Viswanatha | Follow | Brian Spegele | Follow | and Rebecca Davis O'Brien | Follow |\n\nJuly 8, 2020 6:47 pm ET\n\n![](_page_1_Picture_8.jpeg)\n\nFormer senior Trump adviser Steve Bannon teamed up with exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui to launch what was billed as a \\$100 million effort to investigate alleged abuses of power by Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party. PHOTO: DON EMMERT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES\n\nThe FBI is examining exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui and the money used to fund his media efforts in the U.S., including his work with Steve Bannon, a former senior adviser to President Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.\n\nFederal Bureau of Investigation national security agents in recent months have asked people who know both men for information on Mr. Guo's activities, including the source of funds of a media company linked to him that hired Mr. Bannon in 2018 as a consultant, the people said.\n\nAs recently as last week, the FBI met with one person familiar with the companies tied to Mr. Guo, the people said. The probe has been under way for more than six months, and\n\nThe purpose of the FBI's interests couldn't be determined.\n\nA lawyer for Mr. Guo said his client hadn't been contacted by the FBI.\n\n\"The FBI has never reached out to Mr. Guo or his colleagues about any of these matters,\" the lawyer said. \"Mr. Guo is honored to have the freedom in the United States working alongside others to eliminate the Chinese Communist Party and free his fellow countrymen in China.\"\n\nMr. Guo, a former property tycoon in China, in 2014 fled the country, where he is accused of wrongdoing including bribery, fraud, money laundering, kidnapping and rape—allegations he has denied. He also has applied for asylum in the U.S.\n\nMr. Guo has vexed Beijing with online videos and social-media posts alleging corrupt links between China's political and corporate elites. Mr. Guo won the support of China hawks in the Trump administration in 2017 with a stream of criticism directed at Beijing.\n\nA spokeswoman for Mr. Bannon said, \"Neither Steve or any of his affiliates have been contacted by the FBI about anything, let alone this matter.\"\n\nMr. Bannon described himself as \"public enemy #1\" of the Chinese Communist party.\n\nA person familiar with Mr. Bannon's activities added that the contract signed in 2018, with Guo Media, was for one year only and wasn't renewed.\n\n\"Mr. Bannon and Mr. Guo have worked together on fighting the | Chinese Communist Party | and also on setting up a media and technology distribution platform that breaks through the firewall directly to the Chinese people in China and across the globe,\" the person said.\n\nChina's embassy didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.\n\nThe Wall Street Journal couldn't determine the source of funds used to pay Mr. Bannon. But Mr. Guo has in the past used what appeared to be a third party to provide funds to a contractor. He said in a court filing that a Hong Kong company, ACA Capital, paid a \\$1 million deposit on separate work he commissioned from a research firm, Virginia-based Strategic Vision. At the time of the payment in January 2018, ACA Capital was owned by a man named William Je, Hong Kong corporate records show.\n\nA spokeswoman for the FBI declined to comment. Neither Mr. Je nor his attorney responded to messages seeking comment.\n\nMr. Bannon teamed up with Mr. Guo after Mr. Bannon left the White House in August 2017, and together they launched what was billed as a \\$100 million effort to investigate alleged abuses of power by Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party. He has also appeared in online videos alongside Mr. Guo and in social-media feeds.\n\nMr. Bannon entered into a \\$1 million contract with Guo Media, which is owned by a Delaware entity, in 2018 for \"strategic consulting services,\" which included \"introducing the Company to media personalities,\" according to the contract, a copy of which was published by Axios.\n\nLast month the two men started a campaign to create a \"New Federal State of China,\" and Mr. Guo persuaded two of China's most celebrated athletes to denounce the ruling Communist Party, a stunning display for a country used to seeing its sports heroes lavish praise on authorities for their personal successes.\n\nStill, some have raised doubts about Mr. Guo's loyalties. Mr. Guo hired Strategic Vision in 2018 to investigate certain people he said were tied to top officials of the Chinese Communist Party, according to court filings.\n\nThe contract between Strategic Vision and Mr. Guo is now in litigation. After examining the research list provided by Mr. Guo, Strategic Vision accused Mr. Guo himself of being a Chinese \"dissident hunter,\" according to one of the court filings in the litigation; Mr. Guo has denied that claim. Mr. Guo, through a company he controlled, first sued Strategic Vision over breach of contract, and the research firm countersued with its own breach of contract claims.\n\nA New York state court on June 28 dismissed a lawsuit filed by Mr. Guo against Dow Jones & Co. over its reporting about the litigation between Strategic and the Guo-linked entity.\n\nThe FBI viewed Mr. Guo as a potential informant for the agency and tried unsuccessfully to cultivate him as one around 2017, according to people familiar with his recruitment. The FBI at that time also confronted Chinese agents who had allegedly come to the U.S. to force Mr. Guo to return to China and ordered them to leave the country, the Journal previously reported.\n\nMr. Guo for years has been a public target of China's government. When Twitter last month removed from its platform tens of thousands of accounts it labeled as fake and operated by the Chinese government, a Stanford Internet Observatory analysis of the accounts found that one of the four main topics addressed in the tweets involved attacks on Mr. Guo and his work with Mr. Bannon.\n\nWhen Strategic Vision, the research firm that is involved in the dispute with Mr. Guo, attempted to subpoena Mr. Bannon last year to testify about his relationship with Mr. Guo and their contract, an attorney for Mr. Bannon said that the former White House adviser worked with Mr. Guo, but dismissed the subpoena as a fishing expedition.\n\n\"Strategic Vision is attempting to use the subpoena to harass, intimidate, and embarrass Mr. Bannon by prying into his professional relationship with Mr. Guo as well as his personal finances ... in order to drum up a media circus and further harass Mr. Bannon,\" Mr. Bannon's attorney at the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP wrote in a December 2019 letter filed in the litigation.\n\nEarlier this year, the judge overseeing the case said the scope of the questions to Mr. Bannon was overbroad and largely irrelevant to the lawsuit, but allowed written questions to be submitted to Mr. Bannon, which he answered.\n\nWrite to Aruna Viswanatha at Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com, Brian Spegele at brian.spegele@wsj.com and Rebecca Davis O'Brien at Rebecca.OBrien@wsj.com\n\nAppeared in the July 9, 2020, print edition.","body_zh":"Case 1:23-cr-00118-AT\n\n![](_page_0_Picture_2.jpeg)\n\n本副本仅供您个人非商业性使用，对本材料的使用受我们的订阅者协议和版权法管辖。如需非个人使用或订购多份副本，请致电 1-800-843-0008 联系 Dow Jones Reprints（道琼斯重印部）或访问 www.djreprints.com。\n\nhttp\n\n◆ 华尔街日报新闻独家 | 美国\n\nFBI 调查流亡中国人员，包括其与前特朗普助手 Steve Bannon（史蒂夫·班农）的合作\n\n联邦调查人员质疑与郭文贵有关联的媒体公司的资金来源\n\n作者：Aruna Viswanatha（阿鲁娜·维斯瓦纳塔） | 关注 | Brian Spegele（布莱恩·斯佩格莱） | 关注 | 及 Rebecca Davis O'Brien（贝卡·戴维斯·奥布莱恩） | 关注 |\n\n2020年7月8日下午6:47（美国东部时间）\n\n![](_page_1_Picture_8.jpeg)\n\n前特朗普高级顾问 Steve Bannon（史蒂夫·班农）与流亡的中国商人 Guo Wengui（郭文贵）联手发起了一项据称耗资 $100 million 的行动，旨在调查中国国家主席习近平和共产党的涉嫌滥用权力行为。照片来源：DON EMMERT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES\n\n据知情人士透露，Federal Bureau of Investigation（联邦调查局，简称 FBI）正在对流亡的中国商人 Guo Wengui（郭文贵）及其用于资助在美媒体活动的资金展开调查，其中包括他与前总统特朗普高级顾问 Steve Bannon（史蒂夫·班农）的合作。\n\n知情人士表示，联邦调查局国家安全特工近几个月来向认识这两名男子的人士索取有关郭先生行踪的信息，包括一家与他有关联并在 2018 年聘请班农先生担任顾问的媒体公司的资金来源。\n\n知情人士称，就在上周，FBI 会见了一位熟悉与郭先生有关联公司的人士。该调查已进行了六个多月，且\n\nFBI 关注的目的尚无法确定。\n\n郭先生的一名律师表示，其当事人尚未收到 FBI 的联络。\n\n该律师表示：“FBI 从未就任何此类事宜联系过郭先生或其同事。郭先生很荣幸能在美国享有自由，与其他人一起致力于消除中国共产党并解放他在中国的同胞。”\n\n郭先生曾是中国的一位房地产大亨，于 2014 年逃离中国。他在中国被控犯有包括贿赂、欺诈、洗钱、绑架和强奸在内的不法行为——他否认了这些指控。他也已在美国申请庇护。\n\n郭先生通过发布指控中国政商精英之间腐败关联的网络视频和社交媒体帖子激怒了北京方面。郭先生在 2017 年以一系列针对北京的批评赢得了特朗普政府内部对华鹰派人士的支持。\n\n班农先生的一位女发言人表示：“史蒂夫或其任何附属机构均未就任何事宜受到 FBI 的联络，更不用说这件事了。”\n\n班农先生称自己为中国共产党的“头号公敌”。\n\n一位熟悉班农先生日常活动的人士补充称，2018 年与 Guo Media 签订的合同仅为期一年，且未获续签。\n\n该人士表示：“班农先生和郭先生曾共同致力于打击中国共产党，并建立了一个突破防火墙、直接面向中国境内及全球中国人民的媒体和技术分发平台。”\n\n中国大使馆没有立即回应置评请求。\n\n《华尔街日报》无法确定用于向班农先生付款的资金来源。但郭先生过去曾使用看似第三方的机构向承包商提供资金。他在一份法院文件中称，一家香港公司 ACA Capital 为他委托一家位于弗吉尼亚州的研究机构 Strategic Vision（战略眼光公司）开展的另一项工作支付了 $1 million 的定金。香港企业记录显示，在 2018年1月 付款时，ACA Capital 为一名名为 William Je（余建明）的男子所有。\n\nFBI 的一位女发言人拒绝置评。余先生及其律师均未回应寻求置评的讯息。\n\n班农先生在 2017年8月 离开白宫后与郭先生联手，他们共同发起了一项据称耗资 $100 million 的行动，以调查中国国家主席习近平和共产党的涉嫌滥用权力行为。他还在网络视频和社交媒体动态中与郭先生一同出镜。\n\n根据 Axios 公布的一份合同副本，班农先生于 2018 年与一家由特拉华州实体所有的公司 Guo Media 签订了一份价值 $1 million 的合同，提供“战略咨询服务”，其中包括“向公司引荐媒体知名人士”。\n\n上个月，两人发起了一场建立“新中国联邦”的运动，郭先生说服了两位中国最著名的运动员公开谴责执政的共产党，这对于一个习惯于看到体育明星因个人成就而对当局大加赞赏的国家来说是一次令人震惊的表现。\n\n尽管如此，仍有人对郭先生的效忠立场提出质疑。法庭文件显示，郭先生在 2018 年聘请了 Strategic Vision，调查他声称与中国共产党高官有联系的某些人员。\n\nStrategic Vision 与郭先生之间的合同目前正处于诉讼阶段。根据该诉讼中的一份法庭文件，Strategic Vision 在审查了郭先生提供的研究名单后，指控郭先生本人是一名中国“异见人士猎手”；郭先生否认了这一指控。郭先生通过他控制的一家公司首先以违约为由起诉 Strategic Vision，随后该研究机构提出反诉，主张其自身的违约索赔。\n\n纽约州法院于 6月28日 驳回了郭先生针对 Dow Jones & Co.（道琼斯公司）提起的诉讼，该诉讼涉及该公司对 Strategic 与郭氏关联实体之间诉讼的报道。\n\n据熟悉郭先生招募情况的人士透露，FBI 曾将郭先生视为该机构的潜在线人，并在 2017 年前后试图将其发展为线人但未获成功。《华尔街日报》此前曾报道，FBI 当时还与据称抵美强迫郭先生返回中国的中国特工进行了当面对质，并责令他们离开该国。\n\n多年来，郭先生一直是中国政府的公开打击目标。当 Twitter（推特）上个月从其平台上删除了数万个被其归类为由中国政府运营的虚假账户时，Stanford Internet Observatory（斯坦福互联网观察站）对这些账户的分析发现，推文中涉及的四个主要话题之一就是对郭先生及其与班农先生合作的攻击。\n\n当卷入与郭先生纠纷的研究机构 Strategic Vision 去年试图传唤班农先生就其与郭先生的关系及合同作证时，班农先生的一名律师表示，这位前白宫顾问曾与郭先生共事，但将传票斥为摸底调查。\n\n班农先生在 Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP 律师事务所的律师在 2019年12月 提交给该诉讼的一封信函中写道：“Strategic Vision 试图利用传票，通过窥探班农先生与郭先生的业务关系以及他的个人财务状况来骚扰、恐吓和羞辱班农先生……目的是制造媒体噱头并进一步骚扰班农先生。”\n\n今年早些时候，审理该案的法官表示向班农先生提出的问题范围过于宽泛且在很大程度上与该诉讼无关，但允许向班农先生提交书面问题，班农先生对此作出了回答。\n\n请致信 Aruna Viswanatha（Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com）、Brian Spegele（brian.spegele@wsj.com）及 Rebecca Davis O'Brien（Rebecca.OBrien@wsj.com）\n\n刊登于 2020年7月9日 印刷版。","key_entities":["Guo","Chinese Communist Party","Je","William Je"],"ecf_references":[],"word_count":1259,"status":"published","published_at":"2023-08-07 00:00:00","created_at":"2023-08-07","updated_at":"2026-08-23 07:25:18"}