Site Known for Anti-Trans Coverage Accused of Money Laundering
The Epoch Times, a far-right website associated with the Chinese Falun Gong religious movement, may have been funded by criminal activities.
by Evan Urquhart
A far-right propaganda website, the Epoch Times, is making headlines across the mainstream media after federal prosecutors successfully indicted the site’s chief financial officer, Weidong Guan (also known as Bill Guan) on counts of money laundering and bank fraud. A press release by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York (where Epoch Times was headquartered) describes a scheme dating back to at least 2020 where an international team managed by Guan, known as the “Make Money Online” team purchased the proceeds of criminal activity and transferred it to the coffers of Epoch Times using stolen identities to create the appearance of legitimate donations to the site.
The Epoch Times is known for being heavily supportive of Donald Trump and vehemently opposed to the communist government of China, a government which has heavily suppressed the Falun Gong religious movement. The Epoch Times is reportedly closely linked to the fringe religious sect, though it has no formal affiliation with it.
What is somewhat less well known is the Epoch Times’ heavy involvement in spreading misinformation about the transgender community, a focus Assigned Media has documented since our earliest days. When right-wing media outlets were pushing a false or misleading narrative relating to the trans communities, our reporting often found Epoch Times among the earliest outlets to pick such stories up, and that their coverage was often among the least factual and most ideologically skewed. They spread misinformation falsely linking trans people to violent crime, all following the Falun Gong teaching that LGBTQ+ people are “filthy” and “deviant.”
One particularly egregious example of the anti-trans coverage is a glowing profile the Epoch Times published of Jeffrey Younger, an aggrieved father who lost all custody and even unsupervised visitation with his children after he forcibly dressed his trans daughter as a boy and cropped her hair, military style. The Younger case is one of a small number of custody cases where conservative men have used the right-wing media ecosystem to fund prolonged custody battles where they sought the right to dictate that their children’s haircuts, nicknames, and styles of dress conform with gender norms. A similar figure to also have been championed by the Epoch Times is that of Adam Vena, who has been credibly accused by his ex-wife of abuse which predates any gender exploration by his trans kid.
The anti-trans misinformation of the Epoch Times has not been included in the mainstream media accounts of the site’s position in the media ecosystem, although its role in spreading misinformation about vaccines and conspiracy theories about the 2021 riot in the US capital has. This follows a pattern of mainstream media downplaying the role far-right misinformation has played in what is frequently referred to as the “transgender debate.”
When far-right misinformation on transgender identities isn’t understood as being of a piece with other misinformation around vaccines, Trump, the 2020 election, and COVID-19 it can make mainstream outlets vulnerable to spreading propaganda without realizing it. This actually happened with anti-trans misinformation from the Epoch Times in 2023, when the Atlantic included a link to an Epoch Times profile of far-right white nationalist zealot and detransition activist Chris Beck. The Atlantic piece presented Beck as a reasonable detransitioned man with moderate concerns who continued to support the LGBTQ+ community while having concerns that trans youth ought to “slow down.” But, in truth, misleading profiles of Beck in far-right outlets such as the Epoch Times presented the most moderate and presentable face on an extreme figure whose real views were right out in the open, in even further fringe right-wing media that did without the misleading gloss.
The case against the Epoch Times’ CFO is still in its infancy, but if the charges prove to be correct the future of the site will be in doubt. However, a huge number of dodgy far-right outlets continue to clog the American media ecosystem. Fixing the structural issues that have resulted in this tsunami of fake and semi-fake news outlets such as the Epoch Times won’t be accomplished with a court case.
Evan Urquhart is the founder of Assigned Media and an incoming member of the 2024-2025 Knight Science Journalism fellowship class at MIT.