Miles Guo gets 30 years for $1B Himalaya Exchange fraud

Miles Guo is going to prison for three decades. A Manhattan federal court sentenced the Chinese billionaire-in-exile on June 29, 2026, capping a fraud case that touched unregistered securities, a fake crypto exchange, and spectacular personal spending.

Guo, also known as Ho Wan Kwok, was convicted in July 2024 on charges including racketeering and money laundering. The sentence matches the outer limit prosecutors sought.

The fraud ran from 2018 to March 2023. It targeted mostly Chinese dissidents and followers of Guo's political media empire. He pitched two main investment vehicles: GTV Media Group and the Himalaya Exchange. A third scheme, G|CLUBS, offered luxury memberships.

A 2020 stock offering through GTV raised $452 million. The Himalaya Exchange pulled in another $262 million, marketed around a token called H-Coin, also known as Himalaya Coin or HCN. Combined, that is over $700 million from just two of the three schemes.

Prosecutors catalogued the spending in detail. A $37 million yacht. A $26 million mansion in New Jersey. A luxury apartment overlooking Central Park. Two mattresses that cost $36,000 each, which somehow made the court filings. Total investor losses exceeded $1 billion, with some estimates placing the full harm closer to $1.3 billion.

The SEC had already flagged Guo's operation. A civil action related to the illegal GTV stock and digital asset offerings ended in a settlement exceeding $539 million in 2021. That settlement did not slow the scheme down.

Co-defendant Kin Ming Je faced related charges in the same case. Yvette Wang, another associate, received a separate 10-year sentence in January 2025.

Asset recovery efforts are ongoing. The Central Park apartment is reportedly being sold as part of efforts to return funds to defrauded investors.