(Note: This is a sponsored post by FreedomTalk. The views expressed are those of the author and not Gateway Pandit)
By Matthew Palumbo
From day one, New York Supreme Court Justice Barry Ostrager, handling the case between Miles Guo and the Pacific Alliance Asia Opportunity Fund (PAX), founded by CCP-affiliated businessman Shan Weijian, gifted the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The timing of the lawsuit is not at all suspicious, just one day before Mr Guo’s first public appearance on April 19, broadcast on US taxpayer-funded media outlet Voice of America (VOA). 2017. The VOA interview was infamously shut down on air before it revealed Wang Qishan’s then-Vice President of China and Wang’s connections to HNA Group, a state-owned enterprise that Guo revealed was a money laundering front for Wang. And the CCP are kleptocrats. After the VOA interview, HNA Chairman Wang Jian died in France in a highly suspicious death believed to be linked to the CCP, and HNA filed for bankruptcy, but Guo confirmed his statement. Since then, Guo has established a global movement, the New Federal State of China (NFSC), supported by over 500 million people worldwide, as the biggest threat on earth to CCP rule.
On the day PAX filed the lawsuit, the CCP announced that it had issued an Interpol notice for Mr. Guo’s arrest, leaving no doubt that the events were orchestrated by the CCP.
The case between Mr. Guo and PAG made headlines toward its conclusion, when AstraZeneca ordered Mr. Guo to pay $134 million within five days or face arrest, after ordering a yacht falsely alleged to belong to him to be moved to the Bahamas. The fine to keep in the US is equivalent to $500,000 a day, Ostrager says, because the boat (“Lady May”) is outside US jurisdiction.
Lady May is also not owned by Mr. Guo, but by his daughter Mei Guo. Mei Guo both owned and financed the purchase of the boat. In spite of that, Ostrager said that Mr. Guo issued an order stating that he was the ultimate owner of the vessel – this was the only proof.
The purpose of the ruling was simple – so that Astrager could deprive Miles of his right to go to trial and thus force him into bankruptcy – and thus arm the US Trustee’s Office of the Department of Justice.
Mr. Guo declared bankruptcy — and the DOJ manipulated the trustee appointment process to install Luc Despins as the trustee for his case. Despins is linked to CCP by being a partner at Paul Hastings, LLC, a law firm that has done business in China and Hong Kong and has represented many CCP state-owned-Enterprises (SOE).
To better understand the motivations behind AstraZeneca’s rulings in the case, it is essential to understand the many conflicts of interest associated with CCP.
Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett, where Ostrager spent his entire legal career as a partner, arrived in China three decades ago, has hundreds of lawyers in China with offices in Beijing and Hong Kong and is frequently represented, according to its own corporate filings. “Chinese state-owned” companies. Simpson-Thatcher has been a key player in bringing Chinese companies public through American stock exchanges. In 2010, out of 34 IPOs of Chinese companies in US markets, 18 were involved by Simpson-Thatcher. Oddly enough, the firm promotes representing a “Chinese company in a DOJ investigation into potential theft of trade secrets.”
Simpson Thatcher’s extensive business in China is the only evidence linking AstraZeneca to the CCP. Blackstone, one of the firm’s largest clients, provides a direct connection to CCP. In May 2007, CCP-controlled China Investment Corporations spent $3 billion for 8% of Blackstone, later increasing to 12.5% in 2008. In March 2018, Blackstone announced a $400 million investment in PAX’s parent company, PAG, for 17.6%. Its equity provides a direct link between Blackstone and CCP-linked PAG. Simpson Thatcher represented Blackstone in its first investment in China – a $600 million investment for 20% of the CCP-owned chemical company.
AstraZeneca itself has acknowledged its financial ties to Blackstone. On two separate occasions in 2020 and 2021, AstraZeneca was forced to recuse himself after revealing that his income was “derived in part from the firm’s substantial income”. [Simson Thacher] Gets from Blackstone. Yet despite the apparent conflicts of interest, Ostrager did not withdraw from the PAX case against Guo.
Barry Ostrager is not the only member of the Ostrager family to be associated with the CCP. His daughter Ann-Elizabeth Astrager is a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, which has a large China presence. He is also the personal attorney of the CEO of CCP-affiliated Binance in a class action lawsuit against the company alleging market manipulation and fraud.
With this kind of background, why did Ostrager decide not to withdraw from Guo’s case – his intention was to destroy Guo. If the CCP had chosen a judge in this case, he could not have done better than Astrazar.
