Taiwan charges Hong Kong execs with money laundering, is probing spying claims
- Couple held since late 2019, who are executives of Hong Kong-listed company, are accused of laundering US$26 million
- Prosecutors investigating claims they helped Beijing interfere with democracy in Hong Kong and Taiwan, made by self-proclaimed former mainland spy Wang Liqiang
Xiang Xin, chief executive of Hong Kong-based China Innovation Investment Limited, and his wife Kung Ching, an alternate director, were indicted on a charge of money laundering on Thursday, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office said.
“The two were found to have used HK$203 million (US$26 million) gained illicitly from China to buy three apartments in Taipei,” prosecutor Chen Yu-ping said.
A statement by the office said the couple – Chinese citizens who had been resident in Hong Kong – received that sum in February 2016 through a mainland Chinese financial group that was found guilty of fraud by a mainland court for illegally raising funds on the mainland.
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The two later transferred the money from their Hong Kong bank account to a Taipei bank, and used the fund to buy the high-end flats in Taipei’s plush Xinyi district, according to the office.
Prosecutors recommended that the court confiscate the properties allegedly brought through the alleged money laundering, the office said.