Authorities in Kaohsiung have charged the principal figures of three companies who allegedly ran a financial scam in which they made NT$1.9 billion (US$57.3 million) in profit in just over a year by enticing people to invest money in a tie-in scheme involving the RCD Espanyol soccer club, which is a renowned team in Spain’s top flight, La Liga.
Public prosecutors yesterday indicted top executives of Kuanchou Asset Management Co, including owner Chen Hsiu-an (陳修安), 37, sales manager Chen Po-yen (陳柏諺), 47, and several business associates for financial fraud, money laundering and other charges related to violations of the Banking Act (銀行法), after arresting them earlier this week.
Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office officials said Kuanchou Co and its associates lured people with the promise of investing in shares of Power 8, sponsor of Espanyol which has naming rights on the team's kit and other endorsements, while some investors were offered business-class flights and tickets to watch Espanyol play against other La Liga teams.
The principals of Kuanchou Co claimed they had a business tie-in with Power 8, a gaming company registered in Costa Rica and with an office in Spain.
Kuanchou Co promotional brochures prominently featured the Espanyol club, its players and their stadium, which is based in Barcelona.
It has been reported that the operators of Kuanchou Co’s alleged scam also offered investments in Macau’s casinos and gold trading firms, promising profitable returns.
Officials said there were more than 400 Taiwanese who put up the money, as the operators of the scam made a profit of about NT$1.9 billion in just over a year, with many investing US$50,000 with the promise of being able to watch Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez, Cristinao Ronaldo and other stars in action in matches against Espanyol.
Authorities said the scam was created in collusion with a man called “Phillipe,” who police said was an employee at Power 8, and that “Philippe” collaborated with a group of companies in Kaohsiung, headed by Kuanchou Co.
They said the man in question could be “Philippe Capelle,” who is purportedly a manager at Power 8, which besides being sponsors of Espanyol also have deals with English soccer teams Everton and Fulham.
According to international media reports, the scam has been exposed as a devious financial operation used to swindle money and has been described as a “US$250 million ponzi fraud, selling shares to poorly protected investors in Taiwan, India, Hong Kong, Singapore and China.”
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying