The most trusted thing in any media company is supposed to be the money, and that is exactly where The Epoch Times’ former chief financial officer turned the lights off and went to work in the dark.
Story Snapshot
- Former Epoch Times finance chief Weidong “Bill” Guan pleaded guilty in federal court to a $67 million laundering conspiracy.
- Prosecutors say fraudulently obtained unemployment benefits and other crime proceeds were washed through media company bank and crypto accounts.
- Guan admitted a “tremendous lapse in judgment,” agreed to forfeit and repay up to $67 million, and faces up to 10 years in prison.
- The case exposes how fake “donations” and cryptocurrency can quietly turn crime money into media revenue, raising hard questions about oversight.
How a conservative media finance chief ended up saying “I’m guilty”
Weidong “Bill” Guan did not just change his plea; he stopped his own trial midstream to do it. In a Manhattan federal courtroom, as lawyers were picking a jury, Guan told the judge through a translator, “I’m guilty,” and admitted he took part in a conspiracy involving criminal proceeds tied to a $67 million scheme.
That single count of conspiring to engage in transactions with criminal proceeds now defines his future and the public’s view of The Epoch Times’ finances.
Federal prosecutors and the United States Department of Justice describe Guan as the architect inside the building, not some loose outsider. As chief financial officer of the New York-based multinational media company, he oversaw teams, accounts, and what insiders called the “Make Money Online” group.
According to the indictment and plea documents, that team used cryptocurrency starting around 2020 to buy tens of millions of dollars of crime proceeds, including unemployment benefits loaded onto prepaid debit cards, then move that money into company-controlled accounts.
The $67 million pipeline: unemployment fraud, crypto, and “donations”
At the heart of the case is a simple but disturbing pipeline: criminal funds came in the back door and walked out the front as “donations.” Prosecutors say the scheme relied on stolen personal information to open financial and cryptocurrency accounts, then used tens of thousands of prepaid cards carrying fraudulently obtained unemployment benefits as the raw material.
The “Make Money Online” team, under Guan’s management, bought these tainted funds at a discount with cryptocurrency and pushed them into bank accounts tied to The Epoch Times and related entities.
The former CFO of The Epoch Times, a conservative multinational media company, interrupted jury selection at his money laundering trial to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge in a $67 million fraud scheme. https://t.co/bthDeI2GZ9
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 10, 2026
The next step was what money-laundering experts call layering, but in plain language, it looks like financial smoke and mirrors. The indictment describes “tens of thousands of layered transactions” used to cycle money back into media company accounts so it appeared to be ordinary income.
When banks noticed huge jumps in activity and asked questions, prosecutors say Guan told them the surge came from legitimate donations, not crime proceeds.
What Guan admitted, what he could lose, and what still hangs in the air
Guan did not try to minimize his actions when he finally entered his plea. He called what he did “a tremendous lapse in judgment,” told the judge it was wrong, and said he was very sorry for his actions.
In the plea deal outlined by the Justice Department, he agreed to forfeit at least $67 million and to pay restitution up to the same amount, tying his personal admission directly to the size of the laundering scheme.
The conspiracy charge he admitted carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, far less than the 30-plus years he once faced when bank fraud counts were still on the table.
One detail should bother any reader who cares about basic fairness in the system. Prosecutors say The Epoch Times’ revenue jumped about 410 percent during the laundering period, from roughly $15 million to $62 million in a single year. That stunning spike raises the question of how much of the company’s growth came from real readers and donors versus criminal cash.
The outlet has said it was not a party to the case and that the charges do not affect its newsgathering work, but Guan’s plea does not cleanly separate his actions from the institution’s bank accounts. For a media brand that often champions law and order, that tension is hard to ignore.
Money laundering, media, and what common sense says should happen next
This case fits a broader pattern that regulators and experts have warned about for years: criminal groups hide dirty money inside legitimate-looking entities, from charities to media companies, using fake revenue streams to “clean” funds.
In the Guan scheme, the alleged fake donations and crypto-funded debit cards show how quickly digital tools can turn government relief money for unemployed workers into a funding stream for a private media business. That is not a victimless trick; every stolen unemployment benefit is a hit on taxpayers and on people who really needed help.
Weidong Guan, the former chief financial officer of The Epoch Times, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to a conspiracy charge in a 67 million dollar money laundering scheme. Prosecutors say his team bought stolen crime proceeds, much of it fraudulent pandemic unemployment… pic.twitter.com/flNQyUhORP
— GrumpyChineseGuy (@neilzsg) July 12, 2026
From this view, several points stand out. First, Guan’s own words and guilty plea remove any doubt that a crime occurred; he has admitted it and accepted that it was wrong.
Second, the scale of the forfeiture and restitution suggests this was not a paperwork mistake but a deliberate, long-running operation tied to more than $67 million.
Third, when a media company that speaks loudly on public integrity enjoys a 410 percent revenue jump during the laundering window, there is a moral duty to conduct deeper, truly independent audits and to provide full transparency on past donations.
If citizens are going to trust major outlets with the power to shape debate, they deserve a clear answer to a simple question: was the money behind the message clean?
Sources:
cbsnews.com, courthousenews.com, justice.gov, innercitypress.com, casemine.com
