Lawyers for Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese billionaire charged with defrauding investors of more than $1 billion, portrayed him on Friday as the dedicated leader of an anti-Communist movement who did not need the money he is accused of stealing.

In opening remarks at his trial in federal court in Manhattan, Sabrina Shroff, a lawyer for Mr. Guo, also argued he would not defraud the thousands of supporters who invested in his various ventures because doing so would undercut his effort to topple the Chinese Communist Party.

That is “not just illogical, it defies common sense,” Ms. Shroff said.

Mr. Guo, who is also known as Miles Kwok or Miles Guo, has been in a federal detention center in Brooklyn since March 2023, when he was arrested at his $68-million Manhattan apartment and charged with fraud and money laundering.

Prosecutors say Mr. Guo promised investors shares in his media company, or in cryptocurrency, but instead the money was used to finance his luxurious lifestyle. Among his purchases were a yacht, a $4 million Bugatti sports car and a 50,000-square-foot mansion in New Jersey that cost $26 million.

Mr. Guo “took investor’s money and spent it on himself,” Micah Fergenson, a government prosecutor, said in an opening statement. “Miles Guo ran a single con on a grand scale.”

In Beijing, Mr. Guo rose to become a wealthy property developer, and was allied with a powerful intelligence official. He fled to the United States nine years ago, after that official was detained by the Chinese authorities.