Taiwan has warned the Philippines against the highly risky investment projects of fugitive You Hao Chen and urged the Bureau of Immigration to deport Chen back to Taiwan soon, the Taiwan Economic Cultural Office said in a statement Wednesday.
TECO said in a statement Chen, the founder and the chief executive of Xianglu Dragon Group in China, had pledged to invest $360 billion to develop a 3,000-hectare mixed-use special economic zone in Pangasinan and spend another P12 billion to build an 85-story IT building along Roxas Boulevard in Manila.
“On behalf of the government of the Republic of China, TECO wishes to state that Chen is an out-and-out economic criminal who has nothing to do with politics. Chen was issued a warrant of arrest on January 14, 2014 by the Taiwan Taipei District Court during the Kuomintang Administration where Chen belonged as a KMT member,” TECO said.
“To clarify, it is not the Democratic Progressive Party Administration who issued the order, therefore, this case is not politically motivated. This is a purely an economic criminal case,” TECO said.
Chen, it said, was a notorious Taiwanese fugitive swindler. He was the former CEO of Tuntex Group in Taiwan.
The Taiwan Taipei District Prosecutors Office earlier prosecuted Chen for fraud, unlawful embezzlement and other serious economic crimes of more than NTD 800 million (or P1.32 billion).
As a result, he has been officially indicted and wanted by the Taiwan Taipei District Court since January 14, 2014.
Chen allegedly escaped from Taiwan and fled away to Xiamen, China.
TECO said Chen and the Tuntex Group still owed the Taiwan government at least NTD 415 million (P684.75 million) tax arrears and defrauded the Taiwanese banks and investors over NTD 70 billion (P 115.50 billion).
Chen found a way to invest in Xiamen and became the founder and the chief executive of Xianglu Dragon Group that invested RMB 3.88 billion for PX Chemical Zone in Fujian province of China with the money siphoned off from Taiwan.
However, the project has incurred deficit reaching RMB 2 billion due to the poor management, a series of petrochemical explosions and serious pollution cases starting April, 2015.
“If he cannot find a new financing source, his Xianglu Dragon Group will never afford the RMB 15.7 billion debt due and will go bankrupt. He needs to find another suitable place/country to repeat his criminal business model and it seems that his new target place is the Philippines,” TECO said.
It warned that while Chen’s huge investment projects appeared to be beneficial to the Filipinos and the economy, it might actually mar the Philippines’ good image and foreign direct investment status.