Xinliwang International Holdings, a Taichung-based company, has come to the focus of Taiwanese media as its billionaire chairman got charged with money laundering and illegal gambling.
Chuang Chou-wen, along with his 31 employees, has been accused of running a vast virtual gambling empire. The empire comprises around 532 iGaming sites and more 54 iGaming system providers which have been serving gamblers on the mainland of China.
As the indictment states, Xinliwang Group owns around 12 companies that operated a betting platform named “GPK Bet” for the past half-decade, and its operations processed a minimum of $4.43 billion in gambling extracted profit of over $2.13 billion.
The lion’s share of this money was shifted through a new massive network that comprises 843 dummy accounts within China, while it used underground banks to transfer all those profits to Taiwan. In addition to all these, Chuang has also been charged for evading around $10 million in taxes.
Fugitive Billionaire
In August 2020, a money trail from the Xinliwang Group to Taiwan had been discovered by the Chinese investigators, which resulted in a raid in the company’s headquarter. From the middle of the raid, Chuang fled.
Later that year, Taiwan’s Central Investigation managed their way to some tipoffs, which led them to trace the 50-year-old billionaire to a Changhua City safe house located south of Taichung.
All the assets and properties found under the billionaire’s name were seized by the Taiwan Government to prevent them from being liquidated before Chuang faces his trial. Those properties include 13 luxury automobiles, 41 real-estate properties, and over $43 million equivalent of Taiwan dollars.
Unmatched Titles
Chuang is referred to as the Xinliwang chairman and CEO on the official website of the company. He is also described as an investor, businessman, engineer, philanthropist, and technology entrepreneur. He also has the title of a certified international investment analyst, including three PHDs.
All these titles justify all his investments abroad, indeed. According to the site, he is also an Indonesian Raja of Ubud Royal Palace. Even he is an Okhna, the highest title of honor a civilian can achieve only from the King of Cambodia.
