NEW YORK — A self-exiled Chinese billionaire once counted among China's wealthiest men was sentenced Monday to 30 years in federal prison for orchestrating a sprawling financial fraud that a federal judge said cost more than 1,000 people worldwide hundreds of millions of dollars.

Guo Wengui, who fled China roughly a decade ago and reinvented himself as a U.S.-based critic of the Chinese Communist Party, received his sentence in a Manhattan courtroom packed with supporters. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres delivered the punishment, telling Guo he "preyed on those seeking to bring Democracy to China," using their money to fund an extravagant personal lifestyle.

Before sentencing, Guo protested his treatment while in jail, telling the court he had been taken to the hospital earlier that morning. He disputed a prosecutor's characterization of him as malingering or faking illness, insisting he had repeatedly vomited as he was transported back to jail before later being brought to court.

"When I came here, I said: 'I have a tummy ache, I need to go to the bathroom, I don't feel well,'" Guo said through an interpreter, describing his arrival at the courthouse. He wiped his mouth repeatedly with a tissue throughout the proceeding.

Guo addressed the underlying criminal case only briefly, defending his motivations by framing his move to the United States in political terms.

"The reason I came to the US was to destroy the CCP," Guo said.

In handing down the sentence, Judge Torres read excerpts from letters she had........

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