Prosecutors on Friday indicted 32 people on fraud and money laundering charges related to the cryptocurrency trading platform ACE Exchange, recommending sentences of at least 20 years in prison for the four primary suspects.
Among those indicted by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office were ACE Exchange founder David Pan (潘奕彰), his business partner, Lin Keng-hong (林耿宏), and prominent attorney Wang Chen-huan (王晨桓), who served as chairman of the exchange.
Prosecutors estimate that more than 1,200 people were defrauded of an estimated total of NT$800 million (US$24.56 million).
Photo: Hsu Kuo-chen, Taipei Times
Starting in 2019, the suspects encouraged investors to purchase NFTC tokens, bitnature coins, mochange — a token introduced by ACE Exchange — and other tokens, writing white papers and other materials to bolster their legitimacy, prosecutors said.
In their promotional talks, Pan and Lin talked of building ACE Exchange into Asia’s most complete blockchain ecosystem for cryptocurrency trading, but many investors saw the value of their tokens go into a tailspin.
The investors said they could not convert them back to New Taiwan dollars as promised and filed complaints to seek a judicial investigation.
While advertising through various media for the tokens, the suspects manipulated the prices on their exchanges to attract investors, prosecutors said.
The suspects sold tokens and other blockchain products at total proceeds of at least NT$2.2 billion, then instructed others to hide cash in different locations, in one case purchasing real estate in Yilan County, prosecutors said.
About NT$43 million was transferred to Wang, who reinjected NT$26 million back into the exchange to bolster prices, they added.
Prosecutors recommended prison sentences of at least 20 years for four of the primary suspects, including Pan and Lin, based on the scale of the losses.
They also recommended at least 12 years for Wang, considering his status as a director of a well-known law firm and alleged key role in assisting the scheme.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we