In 2019, a major fraud case broke out at South Korea's DableINC.INC. The company's Singaporean general manager, Lin Jinhan, and others were suspected of selling advertising space on media platforms such as LINE, Facebook, and Google Ads, and assisting unknown persons in committing fraud. Advertisement, the amount of fraud amounted to at least NT$380.3 million. The Taipei District Prosecutor's Office today prosecuted Lin Jinhan and other related personnel for aggravated fraud, money laundering and other crimes.
Anonymous people use USDT to run fraudulent ads
In January 2022, Shi Kaixiang, the advertising business of Debo Company, learned that an unknown person wanted to pay fees in the virtual currency USDT and publish investment advertisements. Shi Kaixiang immediately opened a "micromill" advertising agency account in the company's system, and used his and his wife's virtual currency exchange accounts to collect advertising fees starting in March 2022. After receiving the USDT, Shi Kaixiang converted it into New Taiwan Dollars, then transferred it to the bank accounts of his father and wife, and finally transferred it to the bank account of Debo Company.
False advertising content attracts victims, and advertisers break the law knowingly
The prosecutor found that Lin Jinhan, Shi Kaixiang and business manager Wang Baijun knew that these investment advertisements were fictitious and exaggerated, with pictures or names pretending to be investment celebrities or financial experts, but they still allowed them to be placed. These advertisements attract people to join LINE friends or groups used by members of the fraud syndicate, with advertisement copy such as: "Stop depositing 200,000 in time deposits. This way, your investment will double at least 30 times in 3 months."
There are similar cases in Taiwan currency circle advertising. In 2023, the exchange JPEX caused losses of up to NT$4.8 billion to Taiwan and Hong Kong. It was also heavily promoted by celebrities and the media. The artist Chen Lingjiu was also named as a defendant for receiving NT$10 million in remuneration.
(Taiwan has zero action against JPEX? JPEX has invested tens of millions of dollars in Taiwan, and its spokespersons and sponsoring media have made a lot of money)
Deliberately avoiding censorship for money
In order to obtain generous rewards, Lin Jinhan, Shi Kaixiang and Wang Baijun assisted unknown persons under the pseudonym "Black and White" to avoid content review by Debo Company's external personnel or media platforms, and allowed them to continue to use Debo Company's system to place fraudulent advertisements.
Advertising tricked people into joining the Line group and defrauded them of more than NT$300 million.
Prosecutors pointed out that the case involved 92 victims. After these people clicked on the advertisement, they joined LINE friends or groups, and were then defrauded of money by the fraud group using a fake securities investment company APP. These false advertisements were clicked a total of 67.428940 times on major media platforms, and the fraud group defrauded at least more than NT$380 million in total.
Use USDT to Escape Compliance! Involving money laundering and business accounting violations
According to the investigation, Shi Kaixiang cashed in 340.929767 yuan of fraudulently obtained USDT, earning 87.514607 yuan from it. The remaining 253.415160 yuan was remitted to Debo Company. In addition, financial manager Zhang Yixin is suspected of violating commercial accounting laws. From April 2022 to October 2023, he produced 28 false unified invoices on a monthly basis based on the payments received from the shell company operated by Shi Kaixiang.
This fraudulent advertising case exposed various illegal activities within Debo Company. The prosecution of the persons involved will further reveal the full picture of this transnational fraud group.
(Mobile was convicted of fraud! Members of Taiwan’s Ton ecosystem were suspended for five years, highlighting the loopholes in the supervision of virtual asset management companies)
This article was sued for placing fraudulent advertisements! Korean business Debo Company was involved in a fraudulent advertising case: the general manager and several senior executives were prosecuted, and money laundering was recorded in the account of USDT. This first appeared on Lian News ABMedia.