A request to detain nine out of 11 people arrested in connection with the alleged counterfeiting of US dollars has been granted, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
The eight men and one woman were arrested after Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀) turned over suspicious bills to investigators, who found the currency to be counterfeit.
The suspects have refused to reveal the name of the counterfeit ring’s mastermind or say whether a US dollar forgery production plant exists since being arrested at the end of last month, leading prosecutors to request their detention.
“We are still trying to track down the architect of the counterfeit money ring,” one prosecutor said.
The group early last month successfully exchanged US$2 million in forged World War II-era US$100 bills.
The forged banknotes avoided detection by bank clerks and fooled counterfeit money detectors, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported.
It was the first time a Taiwanese financial institution had been swindled out of a large sum of money through the use of counterfeit US dollar banknotes, the report said.
Banks are required to double-check with local authorities and the US when presented with old US dollar notes, but Mega Bank did not, the report said.
Investigators found that the suspects first exchanged small amounts of the counterfeit banknotes to make sure that banks did not detect the forgeries, before exchanging larger sums.
The money was evenly exchanged at two of Mega Bank’s branches in Taipei and then deposited into dummy bank accounts at other banks.
All of the money has been withdrawn and investigators suspect that some of the money has already been laundered and sent abroad.
Separately, Financial Supervisory Commission Chairperson Jennifer Wang (王儷玲) yesterday told lawmakers that a task force would be established to help banks improve their ability to detect counterfeit currency.
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