Billionaire Guo Wengui, who presented himself as a staunch opponent of the Chinese regime from his gilded exile in Manhattan, was arrested in New York on Wednesday on charges of defrauding thousands of investors to enrich himself, AFP reported.

Pursued by Chinese authorities who accuse him of financial fraud, Guo Wengui, 52, was finally caught by the Manhattan Federal Prosecutor’s Office, which filed an 11-count indictment on bank fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. Crimes that are mostly punishable by 20 years in prison.

He was arrested on Wednesday morning in New York by the Federal Police (FBI) in his luxury apartment in Manhattan, in a building overlooking Central Park. Several hours later, a fire broke out in the same building, no one was injured, and authorities are investigating whether the incident is related to the arrest, local media reported.

Appearing before a judge on Wednesday afternoon, Guo Wengui “pleaded not guilty and agreed to be detained,” prosecutors told AFP. His lawyers did not respond to the request.

Guo Wengui is accused of using his online popularity back in 2018 to entice thousands of people to invest in his companies or projects, such as GTV Private Placement or G/Clubs, which promised lucrative placements or luxury services, but above All of this would allow him to live in luxury and “fill his pockets,” according to Manhattan federal prosecutor Damian Williams.

American justice seized more than 630 million dollars from bank accounts or real estate and securities, such as a luxurious mansion of more than 4,600 square meters in New Jersey or luxury cars Bugatti, Lamborghini and Rolls Royce.

According to a federal prosecutor, the fraud is more than a billion dollars.

Guo Wengui, who made his fortune in real estate, moved to the United States in 2015 after fleeing China and was the subject of an Interpol alert for financial fraud, which he denies.

A staunch critic of the regime in Beijing, although he recognized some of the qualities of President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, Guo Wengui vowed to do everything to democratize the Chinese regime. “I want to try to achieve the rule of law, achieve democracy, freedom, that’s my ultimate goal, regime change,” if possible, “within the next three years,” he explained to AFP in 2017 from his luxury Manhattan apartment.

In 2018, he formally formed an alliance with Steve Bannon, a former adviser to Donald Trump and a figure on the American hard right, to expose what they say are crimes by the Chinese government. Together, Guo Wengui and Steve Bannon formed a lobby opposing the Chinese Communist Party: New Federal State of China.

Steve Bannon was arrested in August 2020 on a Chinese businessman’s yacht in a case of embezzlement related to the project to build an anti-immigration wall on the border with Mexico, a symbolic promise of former Republican President Donald Trump.

Qin Mingjae, an alleged accomplice of Guo Wengui, who is also indicted by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Manhattan, is being pursued and wanted by American justice.