The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday sentenced a man surnamed Lee (李) to four years in prison for selling chili powder that contained an industrial dye, Sudan Red, which is banned in Taiwan.
The court fined three of his companies a total of NT$7.5 million (US$242,213).
Lee was found guilty of committing fraud with more than three accomplices and publishing false product information online to deceive the public.
Photo: CNA
Four codefendants, including a woman surnamed Wu (吳), the elder sister of Lee's ex-wife, received prison terms ranging from one year and four months to two years and four months, the court said.
The ruling also ordered the confiscation of criminal proceeds totaling about NT$21.02 million.
Prosecutors said Lee, 47, was the actual person in charge of Gin Zhan International Co, Ltd, Hai Shuen International Foods Co, Ltd and Chia Guang International Co, Ltd, and also served as executive director of Long Hai Tong Ji Foods Co, Ltd in China.
Lee and Wu imported chili powder from China that tested positive for Sudan Red III, a fat-soluble dye classified as harmful, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office said.
After the shipment was returned, they repackaged the product into different containers, declared it under other company names, and resold it in Taiwan.
Even after some batches were found to contain Sudan Red and returned, Lee and others failed to destroy the goods and instead instructed employees to sell them to another downstream enterprise, investigators said.
Investigators found that Lee and his associates changed manufacturing labels during customs declarations to evade border inspection and submitted spice samples without Sudan Red to obtain qualified reports.
If downstream enterprises conducted their own testing, Lee ordered staff to switch the samples, prosecutors said.
Using this method, the group sold 99,558kg of products with a total sales value exceeding NT$10 million.
Prosecutors said that starting in March 2021, Lee also imported preserved vegetables from China and relabeled them to falsely claim they were made from Taiwanese cabbage, and sold them to physical stores and e-commerce platforms.
Prosecutors said Lee also defrauded a company by selling it fragrant spicy chili powder that had been made and processed in China, which the company did not know, earning him more than NT$10 million.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office said it has seized more than NT$134.8 million in assets under Lee's name and indicted six people, including Lee and Wu, as well as six related companies, for contravening the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法) and committing fraud.
Prosecutors said Lee disregarded social responsibility and public health, and used deceptive methods such as relabeling containers and replacing samples to evade inspection, urging the Kaohsiung District Court to impose a heavy sentence.
The ruling may be appealed.
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