A real-estate mogul wanted for allegedly defrauding investors out of more than NT$500 million (US$15.43 million) was charged yesterday with contraventions of the Banking Act (銀行法), the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Lee Chen Miao-yin (李陳妙音), who was arrested in Thailand on March 26, was transferred into the custody of the prosecutors’ office shortly after being repatriated to Taiwan on May 9, it said.
Lee, her husband, Lee Chang-an (李長安), and Liu Wei-ting (劉威廷) and Rich Lee (李進倫) were allegedly involved in an illegal investment scheme using Harbor View Residences, a 456-unit hotel and condominium development project in Bangkok, the office said.
Photo: Huang Liang-chieh, Taipei Times
The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau said that the four used Blue Ocean Realty Co, a company established by Liu and Rich Lee in Taipei in 2013, to illegally accept deposits without registering as a bank.
Blue Ocean Realty and a sister company in Thailand began to solicit funds for the Bangkok development project by promising investors annual returns of 4 to 6.5 percent, the bureau said.
From October 2016 to October 2018, the group recruited 88 people to invest in the project, with illegally received deposits totaling 608 million baht (US$16.5 million), it said.
Investors reported the situation to police after promised returns were not fulfilled, it said.
In 2019, Lee Chen Miao-yin and her husband fled to Thailand, while Liu and Rich Lee were arrested in Taiwan, the bureau said.
In October last year, the Kaohsiung District Court sentenced Rich Lee to 12 years in prison and handed Liu a 10-and-a-half-year sentence for illegally receiving deposits.
Lee Chen Miao-yin and Lee Chang-an were listed as wanted fugitives by the Investigation Bureau in 2021.
Lee Chen Miao-yin told investigators that she established the company to promote the investment project, while her husband recruited investors, the prosecutors’ office said.
Prosecutors said evidence showed that she had engaged in illegal fundraising activities.
Her husband is still at large, the office added.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS