Biotech firm Zodic Light World Technology Inc (兆良科技) chairman Hubert Lo (羅栩亮) has been indicted on fraud charges after selling shares that netted him NT$250 million (US$7.69 million), the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said on Friday.
Lo and 18 alleged accomplices, including an accountant, have been charged for violating Taiwan’s Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法), the Company Act (公司法) and other local laws, prosecutors said.
Lo and three of the alleged accomplices have been detained since they were arrested in June.
National media have dubbed the case the Taiwanese Wolf of Wall Street, a 2013 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which was based on a true story about a stock broker’s rise and fall his involvement in crime and corruption.
Zodic described itself as a provider of minimally invasive abdominal surgery devices, but after a raid on Zodic’s headquarters and Lo’s affiliates in June, prosecutors said they found that the company was a shell firm and did not own any production facilities.
In June, Lo told reporters that the company had signed a memorandum of understanding with Chirana Group of Europe, Taipei Medical University and Honduras to cooperate on a three-year investment project worth 500 million euros (US$551 million) to penetrate the Latin American market.
In addition, Lo said Zodic was invited to attend a medical equipment exhibition held in Dusseldorf in 2013 and secured 1 million euros in orders.
However, Lo allegedly falsified information about the three-year deal and the orders placed at the Dusseldorf trade show create a false projection of Zodic’s outlook.
Lo then started to sell shares in the company to the public for his own profit and also asked his employees to subscribe to the company’s shares, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said that Lo and his accomplices pocketed about NT$250 million in shares sales.
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