The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese businessman and outspoken opponent of Beijing's communist government, was convicted on Tuesday in his U.S. trial on charges of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from on-line followers. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that Mr. Guo was convicted on nine of the 12 criminal counts he faced, including racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud, in a trial that lasted seven weeks. He could face decades in prison. U.S. District Justice Analisa Torres set his sentencing for Nov. 19. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Mr. Guo raised more than $1-billion (U.S.) by guaranteeing followers on social media that they would not lose money if they joined him in a series of investment and cryptocurrency schemes from 2018 to 2023, some of which he said would go toward challenging China's government. Prosecutors say the one-time real estate mogul spent the money on luxury goods including a New Jersey mansion, a red Lamborghini and a yacht. "Thousands of Guo's online followers were victimized so that Guo could live a life of excess," Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement after the verdict.