Timothy Hsu (許調謀), founder and chairman of the Wego Hotel Group, said he was defrauded by a biotech and healthcare investment company in China and incurred losses of about NT$30 million (US$972,447).
Hsu said he has filed a lawsuit in China against his Chinese business partner, Chen Zirui (陳子睿), to get the money back.
Since 2000, the Wego Hotel Group has been known for its chain of “love hotels.”
Hsu has been credited with bringing international trends to the hospitality industry in Taiwan.
Buoyed by his success in Taiwan, Hsu looked to expand to China by investing in a business there.
In July last year, he and Chen, who told Hsu that he had a medical degree from a German university, set up a biotech and healthcare investment company in Guilin, according to the Chinese-language Want Weekly (周刊王).
Chen reportedly had Hsu fund the group’s subsidiaries there: a traditional Chinese medicine hospital, a biotech research center and a charity foundation aimed at helping poor families receive medical care.
Hsu and Chen had reportedly invested about NT$150 million by the time the hospital started operations this year, but Hsu later found that he had not been given the right to participate in its operations.
Hsu said he thought that Chen would make a good business partner because he believed Chen was an executive at the Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, as he had given him a business card that said so.
However, Hsu said he hired a private investigator and found that Chen not only had nothing to do with the foundation, but he had also registered all the subsidiaries under his name.
Hsu said when confronted with the evidence, Chen told him to invest more money so that he could participate in the hospital’s management.
However, Chen told reporters that it was Hsu who violated their business agreement, as he had failed to put in an additional 10 million yuan (US$1.44 million), so he was to blame for the dispute.
Chen said he has sent Hsu a letter to terminate their partnership, because the love hotel chain primarily promoted having sex, which ran counter to hospital’s mission of saving lives.
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