Prosecutors should look into the SET Group’s possible links with ACE Exchange, a cryptocurrency trading platform whose founders have been indicted for fraud, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said on Thursday.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office in late April indicted 32 people on fraud and money laundering charges related to ACE Exchange, seeking sentences of at least 20 years for the four primary suspects, including ACE Exchange founder David Pan (潘奕彰) and his business partner Lin Keng-hong (林耿宏).
Prosecutors said that more than 1,200 people were defrauded of an estimated total of NT$800 million (US$24.63 million).
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Wang said that Yi Chuan Holdings Co manager Hsieh Shih-ying (謝詩瑩) is under investigation for allegedly helping the group launder money, adding that Hsieh had close ties with the SET Group and Yi Chuan was founded with a joint investment from SET Group subsidiary Create Intelligence Inc.
Former deputy general manager of the SET’s media department, Lin Hui-chen (林慧珍), served as Yi Chuan’s supervisor, Wang said.
Yi Chuang was located on the third floor of the SET Group headquarters, and within a month of Yi Chuan’s founding, the SET Metro channel had aired Biboverse (Bibo願望合夥人), a program which was exclusively funded by ACE Exchange, she said.
The SET Group must explain the nature of its relations with a company allegedly involved in the fraud, she said, adding that the prosecutors should look into whether the funding for the program came from illegal sources.
Wang also called on the National Communications Commission to launch an investigation.
In response, Lin, who is also a manager at Create Intelligence Inc, said the company had terminated its collaboration with Yi Chuan when Hsieh was detained for alleged involvement in the ACE Exchange fraud investigations.
Create Intelligence has not invested in any cryptocurrency projects and has never collaborated with a company engaged in fraud, she said, adding that prosecutors should investigate the issue.
Lin said Biboverse was produced by a respected company, but SET canceled the program after the alleged illegal activities of the producer were revealed.
Separately, Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) on Thursday said that two veteran journalists, one surnamed Chiang (姜) and the other surnamed Lee (李), were also indicted for their alleged involvement in the case.
Huang said both had ties with the SET Group and they were indicted for allegedly encouraging people to invest in the Chaebol platform, which was selling non-fungible tokens (NFT).
Huang said that the group also established a company, Minsheng Technology and Media Co, as a content farm creating fake news promoting Chaebol.
On Wednesday, Huang said at the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee that the state-run Central News Agency (CNA) had run an article on March 28 last year promoting Chaebol and the NFTs it was selling.
Huang called for an investigation on why the CNA uploaded such an article and if it had been deceived.
In response, Minister of Culture Li Yuan (李遠) said his ministry would look into the issue.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
RSS