Tuesday, June 4, 2024

Two Words: Falun Gong

Falun Gong logo. Anything look familiar?
US Department of Justice:
Chief Financial Officer Of Multinational Media Company Charged With Participating In Scheme To Launder At Least $67 Million In Fraud Proceeds  —  For Immediate Release  —  U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York  —  Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District …
Alex Griffing / Mediaite:
Feds Indict Far-Right Media Exec in Massive Money Laundering Scheme  —  Bill Guan, the chief financial officer of the far-right Epoch Times, was indicted Monday on charges of allegedly participating in a massive money laundering scheme.  —  The Southern District of New York released a statement saying …
Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:
Feds Accuse Far-Right Newspaper of Being a Money Laundering Operation  —  $67 MILLION!  —  The indictment alleges the conspiracy-fueled paper's massive revenue growth in recent years was tied to the chief financial officer's fraudulent “Make Money Online” team.
Matthew Chapman / Raw Story:   Pro-Trump newspaper exec accused in $67M scheme indicted on money laundering charges: Feds
Matt Stieb / New York Magazine:
DOJ Says Epoch Times Newspaper Is an Epic Money-Laundering Operation  —  One of the strangest stories in media over the past decade is the Epoch Times, a formerly free newspaper distributed on the streets of New York that focuses on conspiracist, right-wing takes and reports that are extremely critical of the Chinese Communist Party.
Jim Swift / The Bulwark:   Tuned Out Voters Help Trump New York Times:
Epoch Times Executive Accused of Laundering $67 Million
If you didn't know, it's a (fascist) cult:
Led by Li Hongzhi, who is viewed by adherents as a deity-like figure, Falun Gong practitioners operate a variety of organizations in the United States and elsewhere, including the dance troupe Shen Yun. They are known for their opposition to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), espousing anti-evolutionary views, opposition to homosexuality and feminism, and rejection of modern medicine, among other views described as "ultra-conservative".

The Falun Gong also operates the Epoch Media Group, which is known for its subsidiaries, New Tang Dynasty Television and The Epoch Times newspaper. The latter has been broadly noted as a politically far-right media entity, and it has received significant attention in the United States for promoting conspiracy theories, such as QAnon and anti-vaccine misinformation, and producing advertisements for former U.S. President Donald Trump. It has also drawn attention in Europe for promoting far-right politicians, primarily in France and Germany.

Odd that none of those news outlets mentioned Falun Gong in connection w/ all this.

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