A teenager who first got into trouble with the police for committing fraud at the age of 16 was arrested again on Friday, this time for allegedly posing as the son of a rich businessman to obtain VIP credit cards.
Huang Chao-kang (黃照岡), 19, better know as Huang Chih (黃琪) reportedly spent more than NT$6 million (US$200,000) using two VIP American Express credit cards, -before he was apprehended.
Huang allegedly obtained the unlimited credit cards by pretending to be the son of Wei Ing-chou (魏應州), chairman of the food and beverage giant Wei Chuan Corp and Ting Hsin International Group, the biggest producer of instant noodles in China.
When questioned by prosecutors, Huang reportedly admitted to acquiring the credit cards by “inappropriate” means, but said he was just trying to lead a better life
Huang allegedly said that he had not had not conned anyone, having paid all the credit card bills.
He was arrested on charges of fraud and forgery, and released on Sunday on bail of NT$50,000.
It is alleged that in March Huang obtained two American Express Centurion cards usually issued only to people who spend more than US$200,000 a year.
Posing as Wei Ing-chou’s second son, Wei Hung-fan (魏宏帆), the teenager allegedly applied for and was issued with the credit cards using the English name Wilson Wei, which he came up with himself.
Huang allegedly established a luxury goods company, from which he earned NT$6.12 million, by using the two credit cards and deposited most of the money in a Mega Bank account.
American Express became aware of the spending spree and contacted the Ting Hsin Group last week.
The two cards were canceled after it was confirmed that they had been obtained fraudulently.
Huang first attracted the attention of the police when, at the age of 16, he posed as a Tarot card reader and an online consultant psychiatrist.
Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) visited Huang’s house in September 2008, reportedly for a fortune-telling session.
When asked to comment on the alleged fraud, an American Express spokeswoman said on Saturday that she needed further information, the Chinese-language China Times reported.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS