Taipei: Fourteen people were indicted by the Shilin District Prosecutors Office on Friday for allegedly scamming more than 1,500 people of over NT$1.27 billion (US$41.1 million) and laundering NT$2.3 billion.

According to Focus Taiwan, the group has been charged with fraud, engaging in organized crime, and money laundering, with prosecutors recommending a 25-year sentence for one of the group’s leaders, surnamed Shih. The scheme was orchestrated by a company called CoinW, led by Shih, which operated under the guise of a company approved by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC). Shih acquired the company between 2023 and 2024 despite not meeting the FSC’s anti-money laundering and legal compliance standards.

Shih, along with another individual surnamed Yang, recruited investors to open over 40 physical Bitshine stores. These stores were used to sell the USDT cryptocurrency and facilitate the exchange of fiat money for virtual currency without FSC approval. Investors were required to pay franchise fees of at least NT$1 million and a franchise deposit ranging from NT$500,000 to NT$1 million, managed by a separate company owned by a man surnamed Wang.

The group falsely advertised itself as “the only FSC-approved business” providing such services and collaborated with an investment scam group to lure victims into purchasing USDT with cash at Bitshine stores. The scam group would then direct victims to transfer their purchased coins to “cold-wallets,” which are offline and more difficult to trace.

The victims’ cash was exchanged into U.S. dollars, transferred to overseas accounts, and laundered as funds used to purchase Bitshine’s USDT supplies by Wang’s company. Authorities confirmed that approximately NT$1.275 billion was scammed from 1,539 victims. However, the Criminal Investigation Bureau noted in a June 2 press conference that over 4,000 people had made purchases at Bitshine.

Prosecutors have recommended a 25-year prison sentence for Shih, citing his continuous denial of involvement and poor attitude during the investigation. The other 13 individuals indicted have confessed to their crimes.

The FSC plans to conduct a financial inspection of virtual asset operators and will request the Taiwan Virtual Asset Service Provider Association to review and revise its self-discipline rules to prevent similar incidents in the future.