Guo Wengui Connections to Gettr and "Himalaya" Crypto Exchange
Revelations from Gettr reveal the platform's ties to billionaire Guo Wengui and details on an as-yet unclear cryptocurrency scheme.
TLDR
This report summarizes on-site data from Gettr and a cryptocurrency scheme heavily advertised on the platform, both seemingly connected to Guo Wengui, a fugitive, far-right billionaire.
The pro-Trump social media network Gettr (which Trump is not on) has faced an onslaught of issues since its inception, including getting hacked and losing the email addresses of all users.
Background
Gettr was launched on July 1, 2021, by former Donald Trump spokesman Jason Miller. The self-described “non-bias” [sic] app, which markets itself as pro-free speech, moderates curse words and “using the Lord’s name in vain”; it also seems to moderate leftist accounts, to some extent, but has been unable to effectively moderate Islamic fundamentalists groups.
In light of our research — and a new report from Stanford IO (also covered by Vice), which revealed a preponderance of child sexual abuse material on the platform — Gettr may have limited ability to effectively moderate harmful content at scale beyond user submitted content flags.
While many outlets have reported on Miller, less has been said about Gettr’s connection to fugitive anti-CCP billionaire (Miles) Guo Wengui, who runs a Bannon-supported media outlet called G-TV (also notable Bannon’s arrest for corruption occurred while he was on Guo’s boat). Graphika released a detailed study called “Ants in a Web” about Guo’s elaborate and multi-platform disinformation campaigns, touching on topics including COVID-19 and QAnon as well as organizing harassment campaigns.
However, the Open Measures community noticed something that has yet to be reported: Records of the “ants” in the early development of Gettr include GTVorg records in the API, Guo properties in a build server, and links to their Jira.
Access to Gettr is now available in our public API and visualization tools.
Data Overview
At the time of writing, Open Measures has 13,052,239 posts from Gettr; however, 4,463,488 of them have labels (“uinf.twt_flg” not null) that we assume indicate that the post is an imported tweets (an effort Gettr pursued until Twitter eventually blocked it.
This leaves around 8,588,751 posts that appear to have been native to Gettr, beginning in July 2021 (all posts from earlier have been wiped). As written by Stanford IO:
“Gettr went through several iterations before its July launch. The platform was under development by a Guo-linked development team since at least early February under the name “Getter” and previously launched as the Chinese app “Getome” in June.”
Looking at the self-written locations attached to user accounts, we see a preponderance of users who primarily claiming to be from either Brazil or the United States, which matches Stanford IO’s findings. (Notably, Jason Miller was recently detained in Brazil as part of a trial against “anti-democratic actions,” after meeting with Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.)
Another data field represents what type of “influencer” (“uinf.infl”) an account is. On this, Stanford IO notes [sic]:
“For most users, this field is null, but ≈1600 users have a value of 1, making them the most common “influencer” type . . . . There are only 15 type 4 influencers . . . which include investors and those involved in the commercial operation of Gettr itself.”
Bolsonaro is the third highest Type 1 influencer and has the third highest number of followers on the platform (while his eldest son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, is the ninth). Second on the platform is Marjorie Taylor Greene, best known as a QAnon supporter and 9/11 conspiracy theorist, who has made racist videos and won a GOP nod in Georgia.
Additionally, among the fifteen Type 4 influencers first noted by Stanford IO, several are directly Guo-related, showing the billionaire’s ongoing influence on the platform. The audiences of the most-followed accounts are mostly all conservatives based in the US.
Analysis
When Gettr launched in July, old Getter-era old users and their posts were deleted, though many users quickly rebuilt their accounts and began posting again, making up a majority of Gettr’s early activity. By using Open Measures’ tools, our researchers were able to isolate the first comments that appeared after the older Getter’s posts were wiped, which revealed fascinating rabbit holes.
The first fifteen posts to appear on the newly launched Gettr were all pro-Guo accounts, which spammed the platform to promote his various projects and political views (as well as posting videos of him). A common theme that emerged from this early activity was the mention of the “New Federal State of China,” a plan to overthrow the CCP from New York City, launched with help from Steve Bannon.
Another common theme was constant references to the Himalayas. Scanning over the platform, our researchers saw a large number of pro-Guo accounts with “Himalaya” in their username. Most notable among these accounts were posts about something called the “Himalaya Exchange.”
![Screenshot of a landing page for [himalaya.exchange] that reads [sic]: “In Just A Few Taps, YOU CAN BUY Himalaya Coin & Himalaya Dollar.”](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8wXv!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff8b7bbf9-b998-4a3e-867b-e9f8c7607e7d_2048x1370.png "Screenshot of a landing page for [himalaya.exchange] that reads [sic]: “In Just A Few Taps, YOU CAN BUY Himalaya Coin & Himalaya Dollar.”")
Himalaya Exchange is a platform for exchanging US Dollars for either of two cryptocurrencies, Himalaya Coin (HCN) or Himalaya (HDO). The site states [sic]:
“The Himalaya Dollar (HDO) is an Ethereum-based ERC-1404 token that has backward compatibility to the ERC-20. Our stable coin fixed to the United States Dollar (USD) with the backing of a Reserve consisting of USD and cash-equivalent assets.”
Further, the site falsely claims to be “the world’s first true crypto ecosystem” (as both HCN and HDO are simply new stablecoins on the Ethereum network, a network — “crypto ecosystem” — that predates them). Finally, the site claims that the ability to buy the coins is currently “invite only,” though the exchange’s goal is to create a US-Dollar-based crypto community that could undermine the CCP.
The website itself gives no indication of being affiliated with Guo. However, Guo frequently proselytizes about it in speeches via GNews, an outlet he owns (Gettr’s white paper is also advertised on GNews) [sic]:
“The CCP is afraid that we join together and become members of the G-Club; it is afraid that we have the Himalaya Dollar and Himalaya Coin; it is afraid that we have an international pass. Most importantly, it is afraid that we can represent Chinese Lao Bai Xing [commoners]! … I have not told our fellow fighters the real value of the Himalaya Dollar (HDO), Himalaya Coin (HCN), and Himalaya Exchange yet.”
When we dig into their Terms and Conditions legal document, many more interesting details emerge. We can find three organizations: Himalaya International Payments Ltd (for the eventual app “Himalaya Pay”), Himalaya International Clearing Ltd, & Himalaya International Reserves Ltd all registered to the Virgin Islands. The claim to have a reserve of USD likely held in the Himalaya International Reserves Ltd, which the HDO is backed by. Himalaya International Financial Group Ltd is:
“issuing a certain amount that is available for subscription via registration. The initial offering of HCN is being conducted on a private placement basis, by invitation only, and will not be available to all members of the public. Only pre-notified persons ("Private Placement Participants") may participate in the initial sale of HCN Credits.”
From our research, we found three organizations involved with or behind Himalaya Exchange: Himalaya International Payments Ltd (for the eventual app “Himalaya Pay”), Himalaya International Clearing Ltd, and Himalaya International Reserves Ltd, all registered to the Virgin Islands.
The company claims to have a reserve of USD, likely held in the Himalaya International Reserves Ltd, which is backed by HDO. From further research into Himalaya International Financial Group Ltd, the company has stated plans to make a fixed amount of cryptocurrency available to buyers via an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) that is “by invitation only.” It further defines that only “Private Placement Participants” will be allowed to purchase these initial “HCN credits.”
Himalaya Exchange claims to have not filed with the US SEC, because “no US persons are involved,” and because “US persons are not legally permitted to purchase or sell the coins” (a strange detail, given that the entire exchange is based on the US Dollar, that seems to send a mixed message to the site’s visitors, many of whom are presumably US-based).
While, Guo has faced legal action in the past with the US SEC over similar equity dealings (similar incidents in Australia and New Zealand), it is unclear if or how Guo, whose last known location was in the US, is involved with or directly benefitting from Himalaya Exchange.
Below are two wallet addresses that helped seed the contracts:
Conclusion
Through an analysis of data from Gettr, our researchers uncovered Guo’s previously-unknown links to the platform, offering more context and protection for consumers on an as-yet-unproven cryptocurrency exchange.
Since the release of this report, three countries have listed HCN as risky or reported claims of users having their money taken without being given the coins: B.C, New Zealand, and the Bahamas. For his part, Guo has since threatened to flee the US after being met with $134 million dollars worth of fines resulting from a lawsuit for wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering. At the time of this edit (September 2021), still no coins have been issued for Himalaya Coin or Himalaya Dollar. As the connections between Guo, Bannon, and Gettr are complex (and may have outsized influence over Gettr’s on-platform activity), it is a topic worthy of further research.
Open Measures’ tools are designed specifically for researchers looking for patterns embedded in complex data. As online mis- and dis-information become more complex, our hope is that researchers and journalists will use our open-source tools to protect consumers and defend the common good. For more information on our research methodology, please contact us at info@openmeasures.io.
Note: For researchers using our API data, descriptions of the meaning of each of the fields in the JSON blobs can be found on pages 5 and 6 of the Stanford IO report on Gettr.
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