Prosecutors yesterday indicted the co-owners of English-language teaching companies Wells English (威爾斯美語) and TutorWell (微爾科技), two years after hundreds of staff and students said they were cheated in a “fraudulent bankruptcy” scam.
After a more than one-year investigation, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted 49-year-old Weng Yi-wei (翁一緯) and 48-year-old Wu Chun-hsien (吳俊賢), co-owners and investors in Wells English and TutorWell.
Weng and Wu pointed to 46-year-old main owner Chen Yung-hsiang (陳永祥) — who made joint investments with the two to establish Wells English, TutorWell and Hsueh Cheng Computer Learning School (學承電腦) under a separate parent company — as the individual responsible for the management and activities of the businesses.
Weng and Wu were indicted for breaches of the Company Act (公司法), prosecutors said, adding that there was already an arrest warrant on charges of fraud and embezzlement for Chen, who allegedly fled to the Philippines last year, taking with him company assets worth about NT$2.4 billion (US$79.96 million at the current exchange rate).
The three men had a thriving business, as Wells English and Hsueh Cheng at one point had 16 and 19 branches nationwide respectively, but news of financial problems began to surface in 2015 and the three companies were shut down without warning in January last year.
Investigators said they suspected Chen covered up financial problems and continued to launch promotions from 2015 to 2015 to attract new students, who allegedly each paid NT$110,000 in membership fees for unlimited English-language and computer courses for three years.
Chen allegedly leveraged the prepaid membership fees to take out loans from several banks, netting an estimated NT$2.4 billion in cash and assets, before he shut down the businesses and declared bankruptcy last year, investigators said.
Thousands of students and hundreds of employees said it was a fraudulent bankruptcy and filed a lawsuit in April last year.
However, prosecutors said that as testimony and evidence indicated that Weng and Wu did not participate in the scheme, they were only charged with violating provisions of the act.
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