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He’s a Chinese billionaire and a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. Is he also a communist spy?
A high-profile Chinese fugitive — who belongs to President Donald Trump’s exclusive South Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, and has railed against China’s communist government — is accused of being a spy for that very regime, according to new documents filed in a federal court case in New York.
Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who also goes by Miles Kwok, fled to the United States four years ago after learning an associate had been arrested on corruption charges. He is now one of China’s most-wanted, accused of myriad crimes by the Chinese government, including paying bribes and sexual assault. He maintains his innocence, saying the charges are politically motivated.
Guo, who made his money in real estate, has long promoted himself as a dissident being hunted by the Chinese government for his opposition to the ruling Chinese Communist Party. He is currently seeking political asylum in the United States, where he reportedly avoided deportation by the Trump administration after the president learned Guo was a member of Mar-a-Lago.
Now, filings in a civil case, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, suggest Guo may not be the dissident he claims. “Instead, Guo Wengui was, and is, a dissident-hunter, propagandist, and agent in the service of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party,” according to federal court papers filed on Friday.
The Chinese spy allegations against Guo surfaced last week in a contract dispute — rife with international and political intrigue — between a Hong Kong-based company, Eastern Profit Corporation Limited, and an Arlington, Va., research firm, Strategic Vision US, LLC.
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In the lawsuit, Eastern Profit says it hired Strategic Vision last year to investigate 15 unnamed individuals — described only as “fish” in their contract — after holding several meetings at Guo’s ritzy apartment at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in Manhattan. The research firm said it had considerable experience in the field, citing probes of the personal lives of Republican politicians, a Middle Eastern prince, and a Russian official in the opposition party.
But Eastern claims that Strategic Vision failed to deliver the private information on the 15 Chinese nationals operating in the United States after being paid an initial $1 million for the promised “high-quality original research,” according to the federal suit filed last year in the Southern District of New York.
Strategic Vision, headed by CEO French Wallop, the widow of the late Wyoming GOP Sen. Malcolm Wallop, was fired by Eastern Profit in February 2018 after the research firm provided information that was mostly publicly available on the probe’s targets, the suit says. Eastern Profit demanded the return of its $1 million deposit for the research work, accusing Strategic Vision of breaching their contract.
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The allegations against Guo — that he’s some sort of double agent uncovering real dissidents for the Chinese government — come as the FBI continues to investigate possible Chinese espionage at Mar-a-Lago. The ongoing federal probe gained new momentum when, on March 30, Yujing Zhang, a 33-year-old Chinese national, was arrested and charged with trespassing and lying to a federal agent after she tried to enter Mar-a-Lago with various cover stories.
According to authorities, she was carrying a trove of electronics, including a thumb drive authorities claimed was infested with malware. Recent secret filings in the Zhang case suggest federal authorities have information about Zhang that could endanger national security, should anyone but the judge view it.
Zhang had initially bought a ticket to an event at Mar-a-Lago that was being promoted by South Florida massage parlor entrepreneur Li “Cindy” Yang. The event was canceled after the Herald revealed Yang was selling access to the president and his family through Mar-a-Lago events that she promoted on Chinese social media. Zhang was aware of the cancellation before arriving in Florida. Now, both Zhang and Yang are at the center of the broader federal counterintelligence effort in South Florida. Yang is also the focus of a separate campaign finance investigation by the Department of Justice.
It is unclear whether Guo is in any way involved in the counterintelligence investigation.
Top Senate Democrats are renewing calls for federal authorities to assess potential security risks posed by Mar-a-Lago’s status as a club where $200,000 buys a membership with nearly unlimited access to the president’s South Florida home.
“I do not know the guy at all,” longtime Mar-a-Lago member George Lombardi told the Miami Herald. “But I can say that the events that took place in Mar-a-Lago months ago reflect the fact that there are a few individuals that may live in the USA but they have pledged their alliance to other countries.” Still, Lombardi said he was not worried by the news.
The Trump Organization, which runs Mar-a-Lago, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Guo was photographed at Mar-a-Lago in December 2018, walking his beloved tiny white dog around the grounds. At the time, the president’s wife, Melania, and other members of the family were popping in and out of the club to attend various holiday events. President Trump was in Washington at the time due to the government shutdown.
The picture of Guo, his dog, and an unidentified female companion was snapped by Claude Taylor, an anti-Trump activist, who was driving a boat up the Intracoastal Waterway. ...
As he blasted a classic rock song — “I Fought the Law” by the Clash — Taylor saw Guo and the female companion walking the dog near the club’s seawall. While Taylor snapped photos of Guo, the billionaire started taking pictures of the boat.
Taylor logged onto Mar-a-Lago’s unsecured guest Wi-Fi, and a while later was contacted by someone inside the club. He didn’t know who it was. The contact sent one photo of Guo inside Mar-a-Lago reading a newspaper, and another with Guo standing with Taylor’s rat boat behind him. Taylor assumed the latter was taken by Guo’s female companion.
“He wants as many people as possible to know he is a member in good standing,” Taylor remembers thinking at the time. “He’s a fugitive from justice who has asylum claims and he’s using as leverage his association with Mar-a-Lago to bolster his asylum claim.” ...
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