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More than a decade after she defrauded three women in a fake share sale scheme, a Taiwanese woman has been sentenced to prison for her crimes earlier today. The woman had defrauded her victims in 2013 and 2014 after falsely claiming to be working for TSMC and Apple's primary manufacturing partner Foxconn to entice them to part with their money for the promise of buying the lucrative stocks for discounted prices. Since then, TSMC's shares, in particular, have grown by quite a bit, and the crime involved the thief stealing millions of Taiwan dollars from her victims.
Taiwanese Woman Sentenced To Eight Years In Prison For Stock Scam Involving TSMC and Foxconn
According to the details shared by the United Daily News (UDN), a Taiwanese woman named Lin Lifen (machine translated) defrauded four woman close to NT$30 million in 2013 and 2014. The scheme involved Lin posing to be an employee of high profile firms such as the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Foxconn (also called Hon Hain Precision) and contacting her victims to entice them to buy the firms' shares at a low price to make a profit.
The first two victims fell into her trap in 2013. The report shares that two women, called Jian and her friend Lin, first met the criminal Lin in 2012. Between 2012 and 2013, they proceeded to give her money to purchase the stocks at a low price, only to find out later that not only were the securities not purchased for them, but also that Lin was not working for any of the companies.
Over the course of the scam involving the first two women, they 'invested' with Lin a stunning 34 times to be defrauded out of NT$9.8 million. Within this figure, Jian invested with Lin a total of eight times for a sum of NT$5.3 million, while the victim, Lin, was hoodwinked out of NT$4.3 million.
Unfettered, and perhaps encouraged by the success of her first scam, Lin then found another victim. This time she went much bigger, and convinced her victim, also named Lin, that she was investing with a Taiwanese socialite in the shares of the well-known Taiwanese consumer technology firm HTC. The second scam was also more lucrative, and the victim Lin invested with the criminal Lin three times for a total amount of a whopping NT$22 million. However, as the victim found out later, the securities did not exist and Lin instead tried to make away with the funds.
After a decade since the scam, a court in Taiwan sentenced Lin to eight years in prison today for her crimes. Her conviction was for using fake and fraudulent documents to obtain money. Given TSMC's stature in the Taiwanese stock market, the firm has seen a lot of scandals, particularly after its rise to prominence.
One such scam, reminiscent of a Ponzi Scheme, was uncovered earlier this year when Taiwanese authorities arrested a former TSMC engineer as part of a $207 million scam. While not directly related to TSMC's shares, the scheme involved the former employee contacting his co workers and others to promise them high interest rates for their investment but make payouts through funds gathered from new investors instead.
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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