Like a grift within a grift never ending or beginning
By 
Sometimes it’s who you most suspect:
The chief financial officer of The Epoch Times has been indicted for his alleged participation in a $67 million money laundering scheme that involves the far-right newspaper.
In an indictment that was unsealed by the Southern District of New York on Monday, Bill Guan was charged with one count of conspiring to commit money laundering and two counts of bank fraud. Each count carries at least a 20-year prison sentence.
While the SDNY noted that the charges “do not relate to the Media Company’s newsgathering activities,” the indictment makes it clear that Guan’s alleged scheme “benefited a multinational media company” and included a “Make Money Online (MMO)” team that helped pad The Epoch Times’ bottom line.
“In or about 2020, the Money Laundering Scheme caused tens of millions of illicit dollars to be transferred into the Media Entities’ bank accounts. In fact, that year, the Media Company’s internal financial accounting reflected an increased annual revenue over the previous year of approximately 410 percent—from approximately $15 million to approximately $62 million,” the indictment reads. “A significant portion of this increase was attributable to the Media Company’s Foreign Office, including the MMO Team, which was managed by WEIDONG GUAN, a/k/a ‘Bill Guan,’ the defendant.”
NBC News reported last fall that the “conspiracy-fueled” outlet went from a little-known paper to “one of the country’s most successful and influential conservative news organizations” since the runup to the 2020 presidential election. Run by the religious group Falun Gong, the company was launched more than 20 years ago as a free newspaper largely opposed to the Chinese Communist Party, but in recent years has leaned into overt MAGA content and right-wing conspiracy-mongering.
As with so much related to reactionary movements in the US, the question is not so much “is this a scam?” as “what is the scam?”, and there’s not necessarily only one right answer.