A woman surnamed Liao (廖) and a man surnamed Huang (黃) have been indicted for orchestrating a cross-border “romance scam” that defrauded three US citizens of more than US$5.32 million, the Taichung District Prosecutors' Office said on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said in a news release that Liao, 36, led a fraud ring and recruited 39-year-old Huang to handle collection of illicit gains in 2023.
Liao allegedly used passports belonging to two unsuspecting people to open business accounts at US banks, which were later used to receive funds from victims lured into fraudulent investments.
Photo courtesy of Taichung District Prosecutors Office
The victims were first romantically manipulated to invest small amounts before transferring larger sums via bank remittance or in-person handovers to US-based accomplices Hsiao (肖) and Sun (孫) — both US citizens whose cases are being handled by US authorities, prosecutors said.
The illicit funds were allegedly laundered by depositing them into accounts held by Liao’s unsuspecting mother and by purchasing luxury items including a Swiss watch, an 8-carat diamond ring, Bitcoin and Tether cryptocurrencies, and a Lexus car.
Losses totaled US$5.32 million, prosecutors said.
Liao was arrested at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Jan. 24 after returning to Taiwan, based on evidence supplied by the US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which collaborated with the International Criminal Affairs Division (ICAD) of the Criminal Investigation Bureau.
An HSI team visited the Taichung District Prosecutors' Office in March under the Taiwan-US agreement on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters to question suspects and exchange evidence, prosecutors said.
Last month, prosecutors from Taichung and officials from ICAD traveled to Los Angeles and Nashville, where other members of the fraud ring were arrested and indicted, with support from the High Prosecutors' Office to coordinate with US counterparts and conduct witness interviews.
Chang Fu-chun (張富鈞) of the Taichung District Prosecutors' Office questioned Sun in Nashville, marking the first time since the legal assistance treaty was signed in March 2002 that a Taiwanese prosecutor traveled to the US to directly question a witness on-site under the bilateral legal assistance framework, the office said.
Liao and Huang were indicted for multiple offenses including aggravated fraud and money laundering under the Organized Crime Prevention Act, Money Laundering Control Act, Passport Act and Criminal Code.
Prosecutors are seeking a 10-year sentence for Liao and five years for Huang.
Seized assets were scheduled to be auctioned yesterday by the Taichung branch of the Ministry of Justice’s Administrative Enforcement Agency, with the proceeds to be returned to US authorities under Taiwanese law.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
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
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
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
RSS