Judicial authorities have summoned 17 people for questioning in an ongoing investigation into an investment scam involving Argyll Technologies Group (雅格瑞科技集團), a sports arbitrage betting company whose Taiwanese operators are alleged to have made about NT$1.5 billion (US$49.03 million) in illegal profits over the past year.
Several police officers were allegedly involved in the scam, luring in colleagues, friends and family members with the promise of profits as high as 180 percent on annual returns, Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau officials said yesterday.
The suspects have been charged with breaching the Banking Act (銀行法) and the Multi-Level Marketing Supervision Act (多層次傳銷管理法), and some have been charged with money laundering, the officials said.
The New Taipei District Court yesterday approved the detention of six suspects: Chen Chih-piao (陳志標), the reported proprietor of Argyll Technologies in Taiwan; Argyll regional sales director Hung Ming-chiu (洪明秋); Argyll regional manager Chou Wan-jung (周宛瑢); Argyll employee Lin Yu-tong (林宥彤); Taoyuan police officer Huang Wen-huang (黃文煌); and a Tibetan man identified as Tenzing Charlie, who allegedly worked as an underground currency exchange operator in Taiwan.
With bureau and other judiciary units, New Taipei prosecutors on Friday raided 24 locations, including the Argyll offices, seizing evidence and property that included NT$87.94 million in cash and NT$41.25 million in cryptocurrencies, as well as luxury cars and expensive watches.
Last year, Chen started to promote investment schemes through Argyll, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands, and claimed to place bets with various sports gaming agencies that yielded 100 percent winnings, the investigation bureau said.
Offering buy-ins of NT$33,000 to NT$1.65 million with annual returns as high as 180 percent to investors, Chen and his staff allegedly attracted more than 1,000 people to invest in what bureau officials said amounts to a multi-level Ponzi scheme.
During the FIFA World Cup, they offered a special package to investors, allowing them to bet on game results using Argyll’s in-house data analytics technology and promising a 40 percent return, as well as another “leveraged loan” scheme that offered a return five times the original investment amount, the investigation showed.
The schemes began to unravel when Chen had cash flow problems and could not pay out the promised returns, the bureau said.
SCENARIOS: A potential conflict with Beijing would not be similar to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and China would target energy and food supplies, a researcher said China is likely to continue using economic and cyberoperations against Taiwan to force it to capitulate without resorting to a military attack, Fox News reported yesterday, citing the outcome of a tabletop exercise. Washington-based think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) earlier this month held a tabletop exercise in Taipei focusing on Beijing’s use of economic and cybercoercion against Taiwan. The FDD mentioned an “anaconda strategy,” in which Beijing would likely use cyberwarfare and disinformation campaigns followed by a blockade or other measures to strangulate Taiwan, rather than attempting an invasion, the report said. A large-scale cyberattack would be
HSINCHU CASES: Five people among 35 who were reported being sick were still in hospital after eating at a vendor in a market in Jhubei, the local health agency said Thirty-five people have sought medical treatment for acute symptoms after allegedly eating banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) from a vendor in Jhubei City (竹北), the Hsinchu County Public Health Bureau said yesterday. The bureau said that since Saturday, it has received several reports of suspected food poisoning from hospitals. The vendor has been ordered to temporarily suspend its business, it said, adding that tests were being conducted to determine whether the people had food poisoning, with results expected in about two weeks. A preliminary investigation showed that the people who sought treatment had recently eaten banh mi at a vendor at a retail market
GOOD MODEL: Speaking at his book launch, Law said that Taiwan is the most democratic Chinese-speaking country, which is why Hong Kongers relocated here China has suffocated Hong Kong’s civil society and its next target could be Taiwan, Nathan Law (羅冠聰), cofounder of the disbanded pro-democracy Hong Kong political party Demosisto, said in Taipei yesterday. Law made the remarks at a launch in Taipei for his book When the Wind Blows — the Struggles for Freedom of Hong Kong (時代推著我們前行:羅冠聰的香港備忘錄). Law has been living in the UK since he fled Hong Kong in 2020, and the book is about his fighting for the cause of freedom in the area. He was granted political asylum in 2021. “Fleeing is a long and distressing process, but it also
IMITATING OTHERS? Tsai Ing-wen’s office said the former president rents a commercial unit for her personal office and had never used election funds to purchase real estate Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday confirmed that he used about NT$43 million (US$1.35 million) from his presidential election subsidy to purchase an office unit near the Legislative Yuan in May. Ko made the remarks after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) earlier in the day told a news conference that she received a tip-off that the TPP chairman had purchased a 48.76 ping (161.2m2) office unit at Jinan Building (濟南大樓), a commercial building in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正). Lin said that Ko purchased the unit on May 10, paying about NT$43 million in cash,