Prosecutors on Friday indicted 32 people on fraud and money laundering charges related to the cryptocurrency trading platform ACE Exchange, recommending sentences of at least 20 years in prison for the four primary suspects.
Among those indicted by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office were ACE Exchange founder David Pan (潘奕彰), his business partner, Lin Keng-hong (林耿宏), and prominent attorney Wang Chen-huan (王晨桓), who served as chairman of the exchange.
Prosecutors estimate that more than 1,200 people were defrauded of an estimated total of NT$800 million (US$24.56 million).
Photo: Hsu Kuo-chen, Taipei Times
Starting in 2019, the suspects encouraged investors to purchase NFTC tokens, bitnature coins, mochange — a token introduced by ACE Exchange — and other tokens, writing white papers and other materials to bolster their legitimacy, prosecutors said.
In their promotional talks, Pan and Lin talked of building ACE Exchange into Asia’s most complete blockchain ecosystem for cryptocurrency trading, but many investors saw the value of their tokens go into a tailspin.
The investors said they could not convert them back to New Taiwan dollars as promised and filed complaints to seek a judicial investigation.
While advertising through various media for the tokens, the suspects manipulated the prices on their exchanges to attract investors, prosecutors said.
The suspects sold tokens and other blockchain products at total proceeds of at least NT$2.2 billion, then instructed others to hide cash in different locations, in one case purchasing real estate in Yilan County, prosecutors said.
About NT$43 million was transferred to Wang, who reinjected NT$26 million back into the exchange to bolster prices, they added.
Prosecutors recommended prison sentences of at least 20 years for four of the primary suspects, including Pan and Lin, based on the scale of the losses.
They also recommended at least 12 years for Wang, considering his status as a director of a well-known law firm and alleged key role in assisting the scheme.
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
RSS