Self-exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui has spent years cultivating an image as one of the fiercest critics of China’s ruling Communist Party.

Once counted among China’s richest businessmen, he transformed himself into a high-profile political dissident after fleeing the country and attracted a devoted following among overseas Chinese communities.

He also forged ties with influential figures in Donald Trump’s political circle in the US. That carefully crafted image unravelled this week after a US federal judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison for orchestrating a fraud that prosecutors said swindled supporters out of more than $1bn.

Guo denied the allegations, saying the funds were used for his political activism and pleaded not guilty to charges including wire and securities fraud.

Sentencing him in a packed Manhattan courtroom on Monday, Judge Analisa Torres said Guo had “preyed on those seeking to bring democracy to China”, persuading followers to finance what prosecutors described as an extravagant lifestyle of luxury mansions, yachts, sports cars and designer goods.

The judge also ordered Guo to forfeit $889m and pay restitution after concluding that his scheme had left more than 1,000 victims across the world with devastating financial losses.

Before becoming one of China’s most outspoken exiles, Guo amassed enormous wealth through property development and investments in China. His lawyers have said his family’s holdings made them the largest shareholder in one of the country’s biggest publicly traded securities companies.

For years, he was regarded as well connected within China’s political establishment. But that relationship collapsed after he publicly accused senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials of corruption.

Chinese authorities responded by accusing him of crimes including rape, kidnapping and bribery.

Guo has consistently denied the allegations, arguing they were politically motivated and part of what his lawyers described as the CCP’s “grand, pervasive, and life threatening” campaign against him.

After leaving mainland China, he lived in Hong Kong and London before settling in New York in 2017, where he sought asylum and reinvented himself as a vocal opponent of Beijing.

In the US, Guo built a vast online following by presenting himself as a whistleblower with inside knowledge of China’s political elite.

He frequently appeared on social media and YouTube, urging supporters to help overthrow the CCP. At his sentencing, he reiterated that mission, telling the court: “The reason I came to the US was to destroy the CCP.”

His political profile grew alongside his relationship with conservative strategist Steve Bannon, a former adviser to Mr Trump. The pair launched the New Federal State of China in 2020, describing it as a joint political movement dedicated to ending CCP rule.

Guo also became a member of Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and developed close ties with several prominent figures aligned with the former US president. Federal prosecutors argued that between 2018 and 2023, Guo exploited the trust of his followers by persuading hundreds of thousands of people to invest in businesses and cryptocurrency ventures under his control, including GTV Media Group, the Himalaya Farm Alliance and the Himalaya Exchange.

According to prosecutors, investors contributed more than $1bn, believing they were supporting ventures linked to Guo’s political mission.

Instead, authorities said the money financed “a lifestyle of extraordinary excess and indulgence”, including luxury homes, yachts, race cars and designer clothing.

Following a seven-week trial last year, a jury convicted Guo on nine of 12 criminal counts, including racketeering, fraud and money laundering offences.

During Monday’s sentencing, Judge Torres read letters from victims who described losing life savings, suffering severe anxiety and seeing relationships with family members collapse because of their investment decisions.

She said Guo “takes no responsibility for his actions and instead insists incredibly his conduct caused no loss and harmed no one.”

The judge also criticised him for allegedly encouraging supporters to “harass and intimidate those who dare to speak out against him”.

One victim, Wei Chen, told the court that Guo’s fraud “destroyed my life” and that of her family.

Before sentencing, Guo complained about his treatment in custody, telling the court through an interpreter that he had been taken to hospital earlier that day after feeling unwell.

“When I came here, I said: ‘I have a tummy ache, I need to go to the bathroom, I don’t feel well’,” he said, disputing prosecutors’ claims that he had exaggerated his condition.

His legal team argued that he had himself been persecuted by the CCP and warned that a lengthy prison sentence would only reinforce Beijing’s campaign against dissidents abroad.

The court was unconvinced. As he left the courtroom after receiving his 30-year sentence, supporters applauded and shouted towards him, underscoring that despite his conviction, Guo retains a loyal following among some of those who continue to see him as a symbol of resistance to CCP.