Police arrested five individuals yesterday who pretended they were diplomatic officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and defrauded people by encouraging them to invest in diamond mines in the African country.
Police said the main suspect, Tang Tsai-wei (唐才偉, pretended to be a DRC diplomatic official and referred to his three offices in Taipei, Taichung and Kaoshiung as the "Congo Institute in Taiwan."
Police arrested Tang, Tang's wife, Yu Chi-yu (由其玉, his brother, Tang Tsai-shun (唐才舜, and two other individuals who worked for him.
The quintet is believed to have defrauded people for more than NT$100 million (US$3.2 million) in a year, police said.
In addition to passing himself off as a Congolese official, Tang Tsai-wei also said he represented a Congolese company named AEI Mineral Group to encourage investment in diamond and copper mines in the DCR, police said.
To deceive Taiwanese investors, the suspects showed many pictures of mining projects in the DRC, while Tang Tsai-wei displayed pictures of "Congolese officials" in his office. The suspects also showed diamonds to convince the investors. Police said Tang Tsai-wei told investors that an investment of US$50,000 could generate a return of NT$6,000 every month.
Police said they had received numerous complaints since February by the investors who did not receive any money from Tang.
More than 100 people have been defrauded, police said, with most of them making investments of between NT$400,000 and NT$500,000.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
President William Lai (賴清德) today condemned an alleged attempt by two Chinese to snatch a letter of congratulations handed to Taiwan’s taekwondo team after they won silver at the Summer World University Games in Essen, Germany, yesterday. A Chinese man and woman reportedly tried to snatch a congratulatory letter to athletes Hung Jiun-yi (洪俊義), Jung Jiun-jie (鍾俊傑) and Huang Cho-cheng (黃卓乘) from the Ministry of Education, and then argued with media employees. “Why are you taking our things?” the media employees asked. “Does that say Chinese Taipei?” the two Chinese reportedly said. Following the incident, Sports Administration Director-General Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) wrote on
RSS