Some professionals succumb to the temptation of money, choosing to collaborate with fraud groups, although the compensation may not be as substantial as the outside world imagines.
(Background: Scammers mocked by police “How are you still alive?” Mother and daughter collapse and take their own lives! Behind this is a well-established jeweler laundering USDT)
(Supplementary Background: Threads exposes “virtual currency scam victims”: Shocked to find losses of 60 million, some take loans to survive on toast)
Where is the morality? In recent years, many once-envied professions have started colluding with fraud groups for quick money, including bank employees and judicial personnel. Previously, the first case of a bank employee colluding in a money laundering scheme was solved, revealing that the employee’s “commission” for each fraudulent act was only NT$50,000, choosing to commit crimes despite their responsibilities in the financial industry.
Facilitating profits from dummy accounts
In 2023, the Taipei City Criminal Investigation Division uncovered the first case of a bank employee involved in money laundering. In this case, a bank employee surnamed Zhu from Chinatrust, under the direction of a fraud group, increased the withdrawal limit of a dummy account from NT$500,000 to NT$10 million in the system, facilitating the fraudsters in transferring the stolen money externally.
Investigators discovered that this fraud group collaborated with overseas servers, luring the public to invest in stocks through online investment groups like “Eva Gold Academy” and “Taiwan Stock Uncle Fat.” The total number of victims exceeded 300, with illegal proceeds surpassing NT$200 million, and the stolen money was converted into USDT for concealment.
The fraud group is particularly cunning, enticing bank employees with high commissions. For instance, the arrested Chinatrust employee, a female surnamed Zhu, assisted the fraud group in raising the withdrawal limit of dummy accounts to NT$10 million without superior approval, offering a reward of NT$50,000 per account and helping to open foreign currency accounts to transfer the stolen money abroad. Zhu handled 18 dummy accounts, earning nearly one million NT dollars.
Banks may harbor “more than one mole”
In 2024, investigators also discovered in Taoyuan that a deputy manager surnamed Hsu from First Bank, while working at the Yilan branch, was suspected of helping the fraud group open accounts for money laundering. Employees from the Yilan branch and Dadaocheng branch in Taipei, including Deputy Manager Hsu and four others, were brought in for questioning. The prosecution is currently continuing to investigate whether there is a significant number of moles within the bank, forming a structured organization to assist the fraud group.
NT$50,000! Lawyers involved in fraud also receive the same price
Previously, it was revealed that a team of lawyers colluded with fraudsters to leak information. Prominent lawyer Zheng Hongwei, along with other lawyers, an assistant surnamed Lin, and rational accountants who assisted in money laundering, were prosecuted last year for violating organized crime, money laundering, and leaking confidential information. Yesterday (June 3), the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office found that four additional lawyers were involved in the case, and once again conducted searches in the offices and residences of lawyers Wang Congjun, Huang Yujia, Hu Shuyu, and Zhang Jiarun, and summoned the four lawyers for questioning in the evening, along with Zheng Hongwei and six other defendants.
The investigators pointed out that the group of lawyers led by Zheng Hongwei is suspected of assisting the fraud group’s drivers. After being investigated, they took the opportunity during bail hearings to photograph the investigators’ records and arrest warrants and monitored whether the drivers had “revealed their superiors,” endangering key members of the fraud group.
Zheng Hongwei, having tasted the benefits, invited lawyers who were formerly classmates from National Chengchi University to join in the collusion, charging approximately NT$50,000 each time he assisted the fraud group.
Insiders in the legal community revealed that there is an increasing number of new-generation lawyers in Taiwan. If they are not “second-generation legal professionals,” it is genuinely challenging to increase their income within just a few years, making lawyers no longer the golden profession they once were. It is no wonder that many lawyers break the law to assist fraud groups in sharing the spoils. However, insiders lament that selling one’s professional integrity for NT$50,000 is truly not worth it.
