On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had arrested Weidong Guan, the CFO of an international newspaper and media company called The Epoch Times, and charged him with money laundering and bank fraud. According to the government's indictment, the vast majority of The Epoch Times' revenue came not from advertisers or subscribers, but rather from fairly straightforward identity theft. The mechanics of the scheme are fairly simple: Per the DOJ, Epoch Times operators would steal people's personal information, use said information to file fake unemployment claims, then launder that money through prepaid debit cards and cryptocurrency (finally, a use case!) back to the parent organization. Though the players involved are colorful and interesting, one can only fully appreciate this scam after understanding the long arc of the Times' parent organization. The Epoch Times is a subsidiary of the Falun Gong, a 30-ish-year-old cult founded by quack spiritual practitioner Li Hongzhi in China. Their deal is generally fascinating (I'd recommend the three-part TrueAnon series from the summer of 2023 if you want the super-long version), but the main things to know are: Their foundational spiritual doctrine is an esoteric offshoot of Qigong practice, a syncretic fusion of some aspects of Buddhism with bog-standard cult of personality shit, energy meditation, and the belief that Li can do ESP; their raison d'etre is less spiritual and more political, as they are oriented entirely around antagonizing the Chinese government. Li left China in the mid-1990s, and the group was officially sanctioned by the Chinese government in 1999 (for all of their wackier claims, the CCP really did try to disband the Falun Gong). The following year, Li took the natural next step for anyone who wants to cement their status as a charismatic leader and bought a 400-acre chunk of land in upstate New York.

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