Taiwan's Bitgin Crypto Exchange Investigated On Alleged Money Laundering

Bitgin, is being investigated by the country's police regarding money laundering cases. (photo: dock. pexels)

JAKARTA - Taiwan's crypto exchange, Bitgin, is being investigated by the country's police regarding money laundering cases. According to a local news report earlier this week, Yuting Zhang, the company's chief operating officer, was arrested by Taiwanese police for a role suspected of being involved in the "Eighty-Eight Guild Hall" money laundering incident.

Previously, Zhemin Guo and Chengwen Tu, two local entrepreneurs, were accused by police of running a billion-dollar money laundering scheme using foreign exchange offices and their crypto exchange accounts to launder proceeds of crimes obtained through wire fraud from abroad.

Tu was also accused of defrauding state tax authorities by claiming the return of a fake export tax worth USD 300 million (Rp145.5) through the sale of video game credit abroad.

Currently, Taiwan does not have an official licensing regime for crypto exchanges. In September, Bitgin together with its industry colleagues formed a Virtual Asset Service Provider Preparation Office for the purpose of self-regulatory and lobbying political officials.

"This time, members of the preparation group were involved in the investigation case. The preparation group immediately held a meeting and issued a public response. Members involved in the case also voluntarily stopped participating in the work of the preparation group," said Yuling Tsai, Taiwan's legal advisor to the VASP Association.

In a statement on November 13, the exchange said its operations were "normal and user rights would not be affected." According to Bitgin, Zhang's chief operational officer was involved with the company Eight-eight Guild Hall in the money laundering case from the end of 2021 to March 2022. However, Bitgin stated that Zhang stopped all communications with the opposing party after learning of the money laundering charges.

"At this point, Bitgin is fully cooperating with the investigation unit and providing all the necessary assistance to ensure smooth investigations and hopes that facts can be explained as quickly as possible."