Taiwan's Investigation Bureau has worked 54 cases and questioned more than 550 people in a crackdown on money laundering and underground remittance, and 22 of those cases involve cross-strait collusion. Law enforcement launched the dedicated operation against offshore money flows as the year-end elections approach, PTS reported.
Why tie financial crime to the election? The cases are economic crimes, but prosecutors and investigators fear they could become one of the channels through which foreign forces move money into Taiwan during the election period, which is why the targeted crackdown was planned. "When we look at a case, we no longer consider just a single type of case. What we have to consider is the national security risk created by this criminal network. We must block these illicit funds outside so they cannot come into the country and be used; that is how we can prevent them from becoming election-interference activity," said Huang Wen-yang, a section chief in the bureau's Economic Crime Prevention Division.
What did the raids turn up? Investigators in full gear raided fraud hubs and underground remittance premises, and tables were laid out with designer handbags and assorted antique coins, all seized as evidence, PTS reported. Prosecutors and investigators found that online sellers in China had illegally rented more than 150 Shopee accounts from Taiwanese university students and homemakers to pose as sellers shipping from Taiwan. Fraud rings had also recruited nominees to set up shell companies and colluded with travel agencies to launder proceeds, remitting the money across the strait through Alipay.
What have officials said? "We will not allow this illicit black gold or this violence to intervene in our elections, so that these illicit forces have no way to score here," said Justice Minister Cheng Ming-chien. Prosecutors handled 156 cases involving 354 people over foreign interference in the 2024 presidential and legislative elections, PTS reported. With the year-end vote approaching, agencies have raised their alert to target offshore money flows and pursue election-obstruction cases. Election betting pools have already been uncovered, and preventing foreign interference is the top priority.
