Officials yesterday said that Taiwanese fugitive Chen Hsian-ming (陳宣銘) has been detained in Jakarta, while efforts are under way to aid an investigation into a multibillion-dollar investment fraud case involving him.
Chen, who is wanted in Taiwan for allegedly masterminding an embezzlement scheme that defrauded 2,500 investors out of NT$5.2 billion (US$172 million at the current exchange rate), was on Wednesday taken into custody and questioned by Indonesian police on suspicion of forgery and violating immigration law, Representative to Indonesia John Chen (陳忠) said.
Indonesian police have launched an investigation into the fraud case, officials at the Taipei Economic and Trade Office in Jakarta said.
Photo: Chiu Chun-fu, Taipei Times
Chen Hsian-ming was CEO of PT Millennium Penata Futures’ Taiwan branch, which began operations in 2009. He allegedly promised a risk-free investment with an annual yield of 6 percent to local investors, who put their money into a margin account.
Millennium Penata Futures is a subsidiary of Jakarta-based Millenium Danatama Indonesia, which is owned by Chinese-Indonesian Tahir Ferdian (林仲平) and his family.
Chen Hsian-ming allegedly claimed to hold a license to trade in futures contracts in Indonesia through an arrangement with Millenium Danatama Indonesia.
In February last year, Chen Hsian-ming said in a statement that due to financial issues he would terminate all broker operations in Taiwan.
The following month, he issued a letter to investors notifying them that their funds had been frozen and all payments ceased.
At the time, Ferdian said that Taiwanese investors should hold Chen Hsian-ming accountable for their losses.
However, a victims’ self-help group accused Ferdian of colluding with Chen Hsian-ming to create an elaborate scheme, demanding that he and Millenium Danatama Indonesia return their money.
When filing a lawsuit in Taiwan last year, one investor, surnamed Lee (李), said Chen Hsian-ming had taken him and other investors to visit Millenium Danatama Indonesia’s headquarters in Jakarta.
“We believed that Millenium Danatama Indonesia was a legitimate business and that its operations conformed with the law,” Lee said. “However, we now know it was all an orchestrated fraud.”
“I used my house as collateral to borrow money to invest in the scheme,” Lee added. “I lost my life’s savings.”
Millenium Danatama Indonesia must also be held responsible, Lee said, adding that it just wants to wash its hands of the matter, as if it had nothing to do with the case.
John Chen yesterday said the trade office is collaborating with Indonesian authorities, and has dispatched an official to the Jakarta police station where Chen Hsian-ming was being questioned.
“We are working to ensure the personal safety of the arrested Taiwanese fugitive, and to verify no collusion in his testimony,” John Chen said.
“The success in arresting him was due to cooperation between authorities of the two nations. We hope Chen Hsian-ming can provide us with truthful information regarding the case,” he said.
Indonesian police have been gathering evidence related to the case, including materials from the Indonesian agency that regulates futures contract trading and information provided by the self-help group, which the trade office provided, he added.
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