Shocking Taiwan's financial sector! Six executives from Taichung Bank colluded with a fraud ring, involved in helping to launder 3.6 billion yuan

Six executives at Taichung Bank were involved in collusion with a fraud ring. They assisted in opening head accounts to evade anti–money laundering controls, covering a flow of up to 3.64 billion yuan. Prosecutors seized assets totaling nearly 270 million yuan and indicted 7 people for violating the Banking Act and the Anti–Money Laundering Act.

Fraud ring infiltrates Taichung Bank executives, involved in money laundering exceeding 3.6 billion yuan

A major case has erupted at Taichung Bank involving bank employees colluding with a fraud and gambling group, shocking the financial industry! According to a report by United News Network, the Taichung District Prosecutors Office found that Hong Yuepeng, the person in charge of Wanli Development Co., actively and for a long time infiltrated the financial system to facilitate money laundering, and enlisted several senior executives at Taichung Bank to join a criminal organization.

Today (4/23), prosecutors, based on allegations including special breach of trust under the Banking Act, major-scale money laundering under the Anti–Money Laundering Act, and offenses under the Organized Crime Prevention Act, formally indicted Hong Yuepeng and a total of 7 people, including 6 bank managers and others. The case involves illegal funds totaling 36.4 billion yuan, seriously undermining the domestic financial regulatory framework.

Bank executives abuse their authority to shield the fraud ring, evading AML controls

Prosecutors said Hong Yuepeng is suspected of conspiring with managers and deputy managers at four branches of Taichung Commercial Bank—Tanzi, Beitun, Zhongzheng, and Toufen. From September 2024 to April 2025, these bank executives allegedly abused their authority to assist the group in opening financial accounts in the names of 12 fictitious business entities such as Jiaguo Industrial Co., Ltd., which have no actual business operations.

When handling account openings, they even failed to retain account-opening image photos as required, and deliberately increased the large-transfer limits of the accounts of these businesses. When the head accounts triggered suspicious money laundering alert notifications, the involved bank executives would purposely shield the cases and delay reporting the abnormal situations to the competent authorities.

Even after reporting abnormalities, they were still negligent in carrying out preventive measures such as suspending, restricting, or terminating remittance transactions, allowing the illegal proceeds from fraud and online gambling to be transferred quickly, and then promptly transferred out intensively through online banking. They obscured the source and destinations of large criminal proceeds through layers of transfers.

Prosecutors conduct searches on multiple fronts, seizing nearly 270 million yuan in illegal proceeds

After the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau’s Aviation Investigation Division spent several months collecting evidence, it moved in to “cast the net.” According to a report by Jing News, the task force adopted strategies of tracing accounts by following the money flow and tracing back by supervisors, and carried out searches in three waves at multiple locations including Wanli Development and Taichung Bank.

The investigation and raids uncovered and seized deposits, real estate, stocks, and luxury cars registered in the names of Hong Yuepeng and other managers involved, totaling more than 269.1 million yuan.

Taichung prosecutors have completed questioning and obtained court approval for detention and bail denial for three people, including Hong Yuepeng, Zhang, the manager at the Tanzi branch, and Zhuang, the manager at the Toufen branch. For the other involved persons, Huang, the manager at the Zhongzheng branch, was granted bail by paying 10 million yuan; Yao, the manager at the Beitun branch, was granted bail by paying 6 million yuan; Su, the deputy manager at the Beitun branch, was granted bail by paying 500,000 yuan. Chen, the deputy manager at the Zhongzheng branch, was released without bail and returned.

Taichung Bank also issued a material fact on April 1, announcing that it would cooperate with the Investigation Bureau’s search and interrogation procedures, and emphasizing that the searches and questioning would have no impact on the company’s overall finances and business.

According to statistics from the 165 anti-fraud dashboard, Taiwan’s fraud syndicates have been rampant, with nearly 5 billion yuan in financial losses reported in March. Now, when fraud syndicates directly recruit bank executives to commit crimes, financial institutions are also reexamining not only external anti-fraud and anti–money laundering measures, but also whether internal control mechanisms are sound on the inside, and whether there are “insiders” becoming a weak point on the bank side.

This article is generated by Crypto Agent consolidating information from various parties, and is reviewed and edited by 《Crypto City》. It is still in the training stage and may contain logical deviations or information errors. The content is for reference only and should not be considered investment advice.