Bank Executives Colluded with Gambling and Fraud Rings to Launder Over 3.6 Billion NTD; Taichung Prosecutors Indict 7

(CNA, Reporter Su Mu-chun, Taichung, 23rd) Hung Yueh-peng, the person in charge of Wanli Development Company, was accused of co-opting six managers and assistant managers from Taichung Commercial Bank to open commercial accounts to assist gambling and fraud syndicates, collecting and laundering over 3.6 billion New Taiwan Dollars. After an investigation, prosecutors indicted Hung Yueh-peng and six others today on charges including fraud.

The Taiwan Taichung District Prosecutors Office issued a press release today stating that prosecutors received intelligence indicating Hung Yueh-peng was involved with gambling and fraud syndicates and engaging in money laundering. Under the direction of prosecutors, a special task force was formed jointly by the Maritime Affairs Investigation Division of the Investigation Bureau, the Criminal Investigation Corps of the Taichung City Police Department, and the Fourth Special Police Corps. They adopted a strategy of "tracking accounts via financial flows, tracking executives via accounts, and tracing the syndicate via executives."

The task force conducted three waves of searches at locations including Wanli Development Company and Taichung Commercial Bank's Tanzi, Beitun, Zhongzheng, and Toufen branches. They applied to seize deposits and real estate properties belonging to Hung Yueh-peng, Tanzi Branch Manager Chang, and others, totaling over 200 million NTD.

Prosecutors discovered that to facilitate money laundering, Hung Yueh-peng actively infiltrated the banking system. He successively co-opted and colluded with Taichung Commercial Bank's Tanzi Branch Manager Chang, Toufen Branch Manager Chuang, Zhongzheng Branch Manager Huang, Beitun Branch Manager Yao, along with Zhongzheng Branch Assistant Manager Chen and Beitun Branch Assistant Manager Su.

Under Hung Yueh-peng's instructions, the involved bank executives abused their authority from September/October 2024 to April 2025. They successfully facilitated the opening of accounts for 12 shell companies with no actual operations and raised the transfer limits for these accounts. Furthermore, when the accounts triggered suspicious money laundering alerts, the executives intentionally protected them by delaying reports of anomalies to the competent authorities, or even when reported, they neglected to suspend, restrict, or terminate the remittance transactions.

These methods allowed the fraud, gambling, and money laundering syndicates to utilize the accounts to collect illicit funds and rapidly transfer them to conceal and disguise the destination of large criminal proceeds. The total laundered amount exceeded 3.6 billion NTD.

Following the prosecutors' investigation, the case was prosecuted today under charges including aggravated fraud, gambling, and forgery of documents under the Criminal Code, as well as special breach of trust under the Banking Act, massive money laundering under the Money Laundering Control Act, and participating in and recruiting for criminal organizations under the Organized Crime Prevention Act. Among them, Hung Yueh-peng, Tanzi Branch Manager Chang, and Toufen Branch Manager Chuang are still detained, and prosecutors have recommended the court to extend their detention. (Editor: Li Shu-hua) 1150423