Staff at GTIC Holdings (金品軒集團), including its Singaporean owner, Victor Soh (蘇珖量), and general manager Lo Lee-chee (羅湘盈), a Chinese-Malaysian, were yesterday indicted for allegedly operating illegal financial schemes that promised high returns for investing in gold and precious metals.
Soh’s business activities cover Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries.
Taipei prosecutors said evidence showed that GTIC’s operations contravened Taiwan’s business laws, with illegal profits of more than NT$37.2 million (US$1.34 million) made from Taiwanese investors.
Screen grab from the GTIC Gold Refinery Co Web Site
Soh and his girlfriend Lo, who reportedly obtained Taiwanese citizenship through long-term residency, made a profit of more than NT$70 million in Taiwan, by offering shares of two unlisted GTIC companies on over-the-counter markets, they said.
Investigators said Soh, Lo and GTIC executives targeted the Chinese-speaking population in China and Southeast Asia.
Taipei prosecutors also indicted seven other GTIC staff members, including chief financial officer Lai Chien-cheng (賴建成), e-commerce head Lee Ping-hua (李秉樺), business education head Hsu Ming-te (許明德), accountant Chou Ching-hsuan (周靜萱), an executive secretary surnamed Chang (張), and two sales managers surnamed Lin (林) and Wu (吳).
They were charged with contravening the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) and the Banking Act (銀行法).
The illegal schemes were based on the promise of high returns for investing in gold and precious metals.
Soh allegedly said his conglomerate owned and operated GTIC Gold Refinery Co, as well as authorized oil companies in the United Arab Emirates, and had joint ventures with two major mining companies in Canada and gold trading firms in China.
According to the company’s Web site, GTIC is an international conglomerate headquartered in Singapore, with major gold, precious metal and petroleum trading businesses.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS