Two men have been arrested on fraud and forgery charges after they allegedly formed a shell office and claimed they represented Myanmar’s government in a bid to try to swindle foreign worker brokerage firms and lure companies for investment.
The men, surnamed Yu (余) and Lo (羅), established Taipei Economic and Trade Center Ltd in Taipei in July, claiming it was the only authorized agency to contract Burmese workers, prosecutors said.
On Wednesday, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office raided the company’s office and summoned the two for questioning.
Yu was later detained, while Lo was released on NT$50,000 (US$1,580) bail. Lo was also prohibited from leaving the nation.
Investigators said that many foreign worker brokerage firms paid the two men more than NT$3 million, only to find after a long wait that they had been swindled.
The suspects had also told local banks that they could assist them in establishing branches in Myanmar and financing projects in the country, prosecutors said.
The pair even forged a 5 billion euro (US$5.45 billion) letter of credit from HSBC in an attempt to convince one company to invest 500,000 euros, prosecutors said.
Investigators checked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which informed them that Myanmar’s official representative office in Taiwan is the Myanmar Trade Office and not the one established by the suspects.
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