Last year, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office in Taiwan filed charges against seven individuals for their involvement in a criminal organization that traded personal information using virtual currency, including the signature of Terry Gou, the founder of Foxconn and presidential candidate at the time. This case adds to the growing list of instances where virtual currency has been used as an intermediary. Recently, a legislative candidate named Ma Zhiwei was sentenced under the National Security Law for accepting bribes in USDT.
During Terry Gou’s presidential campaign, it was revealed that a woman named Xu, who operated a group-buying business in Cambodia, along with her boyfriend Yu, were involved in the illicit trading of personal identification information (PII) for the purpose of creating endorsement forms. According to the investigation by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, the couple used social media and virtual currency to conduct illegal transactions, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars.
Xu and Yu created a Telegram group and posted messages to attract suppliers offering to sell personal identification information. One of the suppliers was a man named Chen, who obtained PII from unknown sources. This PII was then used to create endorsement forms, with each transaction priced at 200 New Taiwan Dollars.
According to the investigation, Yu was instructed by two male individuals, known as “CK” (alias: Qitian) and “Bao” (alias: Dongnan), through Telegram accounts. Yu provided Xu with approximately 480,000 New Taiwan Dollars worth of Tether (USDT), a stablecoin, to establish a recruitment group for purchasing PII.
After seeing the messages about purchasing identification cards, Chen provided Xu with 49 photos of identification cards used for authentication on the online marketplace Shopee. Xu then resold these photos to create endorsement forms and paid Chen approximately 8,370 New Taiwan Dollars worth of USDT.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office has filed charges against the seven individuals involved, accusing them of violating the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act. The identities and whereabouts of “CK” and “Bao,” who allegedly instructed the crimes, are still unknown and under investigation.
Independent legislative candidate Ma Zhiwei was charged with accepting funding from the Chinese Communist Party and providing government agency information. The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office has filed charges under the National Security Law and recommended a sentence of 3 years and 8 months imprisonment, along with a fine of 2 million New Taiwan Dollars. Ma is accused of multiple visits to China to receive funding in various forms, including US dollars and virtual currency, totaling 1.06 million New Taiwan Dollars, for campaign expenses. Due to concerns of potential flight or evidence tampering, the court has decided to continue her detention and prohibit visitation for 3 months.
USDT
Intermediary
Tether
Election and Recall Act
Terry Gou
Ma Zhiwei