A company started by Steve Bannon and one of his crooked Chinese cronies is under federal investigation, according to a Wall Street Journal article today. The company, GTV Media Group is reported to have the modest intention of being “a platform for news, social media and e-commerce, with competitors including Amazon.com Inc., Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat and ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok,” which are among the biggest companies in the world.
Bannon’s Chinese cohort, Guo Wengui, who is wanted by the Chinese government, fled China in 2014 and runs a website full of attacks on China for corruption and other alleged crimes. As the Journal put it: “GTV Media sought to capitalize off that popularity. One fundraising document reviewed by the Journal said the venture aimed to be ‘the only uncensored and independent bridge between China and the Western world.’”
The company raised $300 million in a private offering earlier this year, and appears to value itself at $1.8 billion. Besides Bannon and Guo, hedge-fund manager and China critic Kyle Bass, Texas venture capitalist Darren Blanton and John A. Morgan, the son of Morgan Stanley’s co-founder, are listed with the company, although Bass resigned.
