3 indicted for suspected fraud in egg procurement deals

Taipei, Aug. 28 (CNA) Two businesswomen and a former employee of the National Animal Industry Foundation (NAIF) were indicted on Thursday for allegedly making shady deals in the procurement of eggs from abroad for sale in Taiwan.

In the process, the three suspects allegedly reaped unlawful gains of over NT$60 million (US$1.96 million) from 2022 to 2023, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office said in a statement.

In early 2022, Taiwan was hit by severe egg shortage due to cold weather, and this happened again in early 2023, forcing the Ministry of Agriculture to import eggs through the NAIF.

Wu Yu-fei (吳諭非), a Japan-based businesswoman who had been a supplier to the NAIF since 2019, is accused of falsifying documents to defraud the foundation in 2022 and 2023, making NT$60.85 million in the process, according to the statement.

During the first half of 2022, Wu allegedly inflated the price of eggs supplied to the NAIF by forging transactions between an NAIF contractor in Taiwan -- Brilliance Biotechnology -- and her company Crestone in Japan, the prosecutors' office said.

Through that arrangement alone, Wu allegedly pocketed NT$6.46 million, it said.

Meanwhile, former NAIF employee Wu Chun-ta (吳俊達), who was in charge of egg procurement at the foundation in 2022 and 2023, also became involved in the fraud scheme, prosecutors said.

When his colleagues questioned the cost of a batch of eggs supplied to Brilliance Biotechnology by Crestone, Wu Chun-ta signed off on the bill, which was inflated by NT$177,435 due to questionable calculations of foreign exchange rates, prosecutors said.

He was also accused of dereliction of duty, as he failed to carry out the mandatory inspections of deliveries from Wu Yu-fei's various companies, prosecutors said.

They also said that Wu Yu-fei's mother, Chin Yu-chiao (秦語喬), helped set up a shell company called Ultra Source, which was registered in Kaohsiung in September 2022 and was used for the businesswoman's fraudulent dealings.

Chin was indicted for producing misleading documents to register the company, prosecutors said. She submitted a bank statement to the Kaohsiung City government, showing that Ultra Source had capital of NT$500,000, but after she obtained the registration certificate, the money was moved out the account, they said, citing the Company Act.

In 2023, Wu Yu-fei used Best Fine, a Brazilian company she was running, to supply eggs to the NAIF via Ultra Source at an inflated price, which gave her an estimated unlawful gain of NT$54.21 million, prosecutors said.

The alleged racketeering came to light in the second half of 2023, when millions of imported eggs expired and were set to be destroyed but could not be accounted for.

In September 2024, the prosecutors searched several locations and questioned Chin, NAIF employees and agriculture officials, after a Control Yuan investigation found documents indicating that Ultra Source was doing business before it was legally registered.

Wu Yu-fei voluntarily returned to Taiwan in October last year for questioning by prosecutors, a fact that was put forth Thursday in their request to the court for two-year prison sentence.

The fraud charges against her carry a maximum sentence of five years, according to Article 339 of the Criminal Code.

Meanwhile, prosecutors said Thursday that Minister of Agriculture Chen Chun-chi (陳駿季), his predecessor Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲), former NAIF Chairman Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢), and two other officials have been cleared of any charges in relation to the case.