Four people have been indicted for allegedly helping Chinese firms to illegally recruit Taiwanese IT and biotechnology professionals, the Hsinchu District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
The four suspects face charges under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), head prosecutor Chou Mao-yu (鄒茂瑜) said.
In August 2018, data storage firm Starblaze Technology Co (北京憶芯), which is headquartered in Beijing, paid two Taiwanese men, surnamed Kao (高) and Hsu (許), to register a business entity in Hsinchu’s Jhubei City (竹北), Chou said.
Evidence showed that Kao and Hsu produced promotional material for Starblaze, and adverts for positions as IC chip designers and engineers, Chou said, adding the pair targeted people working in the high-tech industry in northern Taiwan.
Kao and Hsu set up a “research and development center” and offered high salaries to entice people to work on solid state drive chips, he said, adding that they provided regular updates to Starblaze.
In November 2018, Starblaze signed a deal with BIPO Ltd, a Hong Kong-based human resources firm, and Kao and Hsu transferred health insurance and other data of their workers to a BIPO office in Taipei, Chou said.
As of January, Starblaze had wired nearly US$1 million to the BIPO office to finance operations in Taiwan, he said.
The money transfers and employee data were managed by a BIPO manager surnamed Chiang (江), Chou said, adding that Chiang and another Taiwanese man surnamed Huang (黃) using a similar approach set up a company on behalf of genomics research firm MGI Tech Co, which is based in Shenzhen, China, to recruit biotechnology professionals.
Kao, Hsu, Chiang and Huang allegedly concealed the source of the finances and the involvement of the Chinese companies, which are prohibited from operating or hiring in Taiwan without permission, Chou said.
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