A couple yesterday were convicted and handed prison terms for masterminding a carbon credit trading scam that netted more than NT$100 million (US$3.31 million) in profits over two years.
The Hsinchu District Court yesterday ruled that Hsu Chu-tsai (徐鉅裁), 67, and his wife, Yang Liang-liang (楊亮亮), 60, who were the owners of Rich Alliance Good Health Co (富盟康泰事業公司), were guilty of financial fraud and illegally operating an investment business in contravention of the Banking Act (銀行法).
The judges sentenced Hsu to eight years in prison, while Yang received a four-year term, while also confiscating the more than NT$100 million of profits and imposing a NT$25 million fine on the company.
An investigation found that the couple registered Rich Alliance Good Health Co in 2016 in Hsinchu City, initially to market equipment to generate renewable energy and control pollution.
The couple in 2019 started to promote “carbon credit trading” and claimed to be authorized by international bodies that deal in “carbon emissions trading schemes,” enticing people to invest with promises of lucrative returns.
“Although Hsu and Yang knew their company was not dealing in ‘carbon credit trading,’ they set up a trading platform to lure investors by promoting the company as engaging in legitimate international schemes for carbon neutralization and the sale of carbon credits, taking advantage of the worldwide trend for renewable energy sources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said a filing by Hsinchu prosecutors who conducted the investigation.
Hsu gained the trust of potential investors by claiming that he had studied at Germany’s prestigious Ifo Institute for Economic Research and that he was formerly head of foreign exchange trading at a leading bank in Singapore who was authorized to trade on what he called the “London Carbon Credit Exchange.”
In the indictment, prosecutors said an investigation showed that was fraud, as most of Hsu’s claims were backed up with forged papers about his past and current business ties in Germany and Singapore, and that no such London carbon credit exchange existed, as before Brexit in 2019, the UK participated in the EU Emissions Trading System.
The couple lured 78 investors in Taiwan, China, the US and other nations, with carbon credits sold for US$3,000 per 300 tonnes, for which the investor received a “carbon credit voucher,” prosecutors said.
The vouchers and the values were said to be guaranteed by the couple’s “carbon credit certification center,” which promised monthly profits of up to 4 percent and annual profits of between 18 and 48 percent, they said.
The couple were active in the Kiwanis Club, and had started a local chapter, through which they promoted the “carbon credit” scheme with fellow businesspeople, prosecutors said.
At first investors received some returns, but began to suffer shortfalls in the second year, they said.
Investors received statements from Hsu in June 2020 that claimed that the director of the “London Carbon Credit Exchange” had died of COVID-19 and that payments had been delayed due to the suspension of carbon credit trading in London, which led to some investors suspecting fraud and asking authorities to investigate, they added.
“The couple lured people to invest by false promises of high rates of return from the carbon credit trading scheme. Many investors lost their savings and incurred huge financial losses. It also resulted in damage to Taiwan’s financial system and its regulation,” the judges said in their ruling.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS