14 indicted in NT$1.27 billion crypto-related fraud case

Taipei, Aug. 22 (CNA) Fourteen people were indicted by the Shilin District Prosecutors Office on Friday for allegedly scamming more than 1,500 people of over NT$1.27 billion (US$41.1 million) and laundering NT$2.3 billion.

The group has been charged with fraud, engaging in organized crime, and money laundering, and prosecutors have recommended a 25-year sentence for one of the group's leaders, surnamed Shih (施), according to a statement released by the office Friday.

The scheme was run by a company call CoinW led by Shih. It operated under the mantle of a company approved by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), which Shih acquired between 2023 and 2024 despite failing to comply with FSC anti-money laundering and legal compliance standards, the statement said.

Shih and another man, surnamed Yang (楊), recruited investors to open over 40 physical Bitshine stores to sell the USDT cryptocurrency and facilitate the exchange of fiat money for virtual currency without FSC approval, prosecutors alleged.

The investors were required to pay at least NT$1 million in franchise fees and make a franchise deposit of NT$500,000 to NT$1 million, managed by a separate company owned by a man surnamed Wang (王).

Falsely advertising itself as "the only FSC-approved business" providing such services, the group worked with an investment scam group to lure victims into buying USDT with cash at Bitshine stores, prosecutors said.

The scam group would then instruct the victims to transfer the coins they purchased to "cold-wallets" also owned by the scam group, which are offline and more difficult to trace.

Meanwhile, the victims' cash would be exchanged into U.S. dollars, transferred to overseas accounts, and laundered as funds used to purchase Bitshine's USDT supplies by Wang's company, according to prosecutors.

In total, authorities were able to confirm approximately NT$1.275 billion were scammed from 1,539 victims, yet in a press conference on June 2, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said more than 4,000 people made purchases at Bitshine.

Prosecutors have recommended a 25-year prison sentence for Shih, whom they said continuously denied his involvement and displayed a poor attitude during the investigation. The 13 others indicted have confessed to their crimes.

The FSC will launch a financial inspection of virtual asset operators, the statement said, and it will ask the Taiwan Virtual Asset Service Provider Association to study and revise its self-discipline rules to prevent similar cases in the future.