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.
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