Taipei prosecutors indict two people for camellia oil fraud

Taipei, Oct. 2 (CNA) Taipei prosecutors on Friday indicted two people on charges of fraud, alleging they used Chinese tea seeds to produce camellia oil that was falsely labeled as being entirely made from Taiwanese tea seeds.

The two were Chen Chung Hsiu-hui (陳鐘秀惠), a business manager at Taipei-based Dynas International Corp., who was in charge of producing the company's camellia oil products, and independent tea seed supplier Chen Yuan-nong (陳沅農), according to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office.

Dynas shareholder Tu Chieh-sheng (凃傑生), registered representative Chin Tien-li (金天麗) and product manager Tsai Meng-chieh (蔡孟潔) were not indicted due to insufficient evidence.

Prosecutors alleged that from 2023 through the end of 2024, Chen Chung either directly purchased China-made camellia oil from Yuan Chuen Oil Mill, based in Chiayi County, for Dynas or commissioned the mill to produce camellia oil using Chinese tea seeds.

Under her instructions, the oil was then bottled and sold to the public under the "Gaoyangsan" brand with labels falsely stating that it was made from "100 percent Taiwanese native tea seeds" and bearing an "Origin: Taiwan" designation, they said.

Meanwhile, Chen sometimes worked with Chen Chung and also independently supplied Chinese tea seeds to Dynas at different times while falsely claiming that they were from Taiwan, for personal profit.

Chen Chung knew that all of the camellia oil Yuan Chuen produced for Dynas from 2023 onward was made using Chinese tea seeds, but deliberately concealed the fact from Tingmao Agricultural Biotechnology Co. and Yuen Foong Yu Biotech Co., both of which believed otherwise and continued to place orders with Dynas, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors estimated that Dynas made NT$17.79 million (US$556,829) in profits from selling camellia oil made using Chinese tea seeds, while Chen made NT$2.07 million from selling them to Dynas.

Prosecutors on Friday indicted Chen Chung and Chen on charges of committing fraud for profit and false labeling under the Criminal Code, and requested that the court seize their criminal proceeds.

In the indictment, prosecutors said the two suspects put consumers at risk by concealing the true origin and quality of the oil for personal profit, and asked the court to hand down heavy sentences.

The case emerged amid food safety concerns over excessive levels of the carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) found in cooking oil in recent months. Several batches of camellia oil sold by Dynas were subsequently found to contain excessive levels of BaP.