![A photo illustration of Guo Wengui and 781 Fifth Avenue (Getty, Tony Hisgett; cropped by Beyond My Ken, CC BY 2.0 - via Wikimedia Commons)](https://static.therealdeal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/main_NY_Sherry-Netherland-Fire.jpg)
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Guo Wengui outed as 50K sf NJ mansion buyer
Property among assets prosecutors highlighted in exiled Chinese tycoon’s fraud charges
![Guo Wengui with the Crocker-McMillin mansion](https://static.therealdeal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Chinese-Exile-Guo-Wengui-Outed-As-New-Jersey-Mansion-Buyer-main-1400x875.jpg)
Guo Wengui with the Crocker-McMillin mansion (Getty, JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ M.D., CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)
An exiled Chinese tycoon was arrested and charged earlier this week by federal prosecutors who allege he used investments to buy a yacht, expensive mattresses, a Ferrari and a mansion.
The mansion in question is a historic 50,000-square-foot home in Mahwah, New Jersey, which has not been previously reported as belonging to Guo Wengui. Bloomberg reported the connection days after Guo was charged with orchestrating a conspiracy to defraud his online followers out of $1 billion.
The home made its own headlines when it hit the market in 2017, asking $48 million, before selling to Las Vegas-based Taurus Fund LLC for $26 million in December 2021.
The Gilded Age home was built in 1907, sits on 12.5 acres and includes 29 bathrooms, 21 bedrooms and a 45-foot-tall organ.
The home’s previous owner, businessman Ilija Pavlovic, paid developer Darlington Associates $8.8 million for the home in 2008 before embarking on a yearslong renovation. Pavlovic told the Wall Street Journal at the time of the listing he was interested in the “challenge” of updating the home.
Assets tied to Guo, a financier and associate of political strategist Steve Bannon, came under harsher scrutiny this week in the wake of his arrest.
The unsealed federal indictment claimed Guo and a co-defendant used Guo’s strong online presence to solicit investments for entities and programs, for which he promised “outsized financial returns and other benefits.”
He also sparked local attention when — hours after he was arrested in his unit at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel — a two-alarm fire broke out on the same floor of his penthouse at 781 Fifth Avenue.
Wengui bought the co-op for $67.5 million in 2015. The 15-room unit hit the market in Feb. 2022 asking $45 million, but that price has since been reduced to $32.5 million.
Genever Holdings, the LLC that owns the Sherry-Netherland penthouse, has tried unloading the apartment several times. The building’s co-op board, which accused Guo of being behind the shell company, even sued Genever for unpaid maintenance charges amounting to nearly $1 million.
— Ellen Cranley
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![A photo illustration of Guo Wengui and 781 Fifth Avenue (Getty, Tony Hisgett; cropped by Beyond My Ken, CC BY 2.0 - via Wikimedia Commons)](https://static.therealdeal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/main_NY_Sherry-Netherland-Fire.jpg)
![Guo Wengui and the Sherry-Netherland penthouse at 781 Fifth Avenue (Photos via Wikipedia Commons; Getty Images and Douglas Elliman)](https://static.therealdeal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ft-sherry-netherland-guo-wengui-250x179.jpg)
![Sherry-Netherland Hotel at 781 Fifth Avenue and Guo Wengui (Credit: iStock)](https://static.therealdeal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/200-guo-200x143.jpg)