But when the judge asked him if he was pleading guilty, he responded: “I feel like I’m guilty.”

    Marrero told him it was not a question of what he felt, but whether he was guilty.

    “I’m guilty,” Guan responded.

In this case, it looks like the court wasn't questioning whether or not the funds he was handling were fraudulent, but whether or not he knew they were fraudulent, and that's much more subjective.

There doesn't seem to be information on who else was involved in the scheme. Was the Falun Gong organization involved? Who were the people/organizations that he was laundering money for?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Epoch_Times

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/media/1354021/dl