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$41M Crypto Scam Exposed: Taiwan Indicts 14 in BitShine Fraud Case
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Taiwan Indicts 14 in BitShine Fraud Case

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Taiwanese authorities have wrapped up a major investigation into one of the country’s most high-profile crypto-related fraud cases, filing charges against 14 individuals linked to the BitShine exchange.

Prosecutors allege the group conspired with criminal networks to siphon NT$1.27 billion (approximately $41 million) from more than 1,500 victims through a scheme that combined fraudulent investment pitches with unlicensed cryptocurrency operations.

According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency, BitShine operated under the cover of legitimacy, having reportedly passed financial compliance checks, while using its brand to conceal the activities of another firm, Biying Technology, which had not been approved by regulators.

Investigators allege that the two entities worked in tandem to funnel customer deposits into crypto purchases, particularly USDT, before moving the funds overseas through a series of complex transfers designed to obscure their origins.

Structure of the Fraud Network

Prosecutors identified a man surnamed Shih as the head of the operation in Taiwan, with his wife serving as Asia-Pacific director and another suspect, surnamed Yang, responsible for business management.

Working with organized crime affiliates, the group allegedly instructed victims to transfer funds into wallets controlled by the network. The tokens were then routed through multiple layers of transactions in what officials described as deliberate efforts to launder the money and evade detection.

Between January 2024 and April 2025, investigators estimate the operation laundered more than NT$2.3 billion ($75 million). Of that, NT$1.27 billion was directly tied to 1,539 identified victims.

Law enforcement seized NT$60.49 million in cash, 640,000 USDT, additional digital assets, and luxury items including cars during raids earlier this year.

Authorities stated that the group misled investors by claiming to be the only exchange authorized by Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), a tactic that helped attract significant deposits.

They also reportedly established more than 40 franchise-style storefronts across Taiwan under the names CoinW and BiXiang Technology Co., Ltd., collecting over one million yuan in fees and deploying “deposit machines” to process victims’ cash.

Indictments and Sentencing Requests

The Shilin District Prosecutor’s Office indicted Shih and 13 others on charges of fraud, money laundering, providing unregistered virtual asset services, and organizing a criminal enterprise under Taiwan’s Organized Crime Prevention Act.

Prosecutors are seeking a 25-year sentence for Shih, citing his refusal to plead guilty and lack of remorse. Other defendants who confessed or pledged to return illicit gains may face reduced penalties.

In addition to confiscating the seized digital assets and cash, prosecutors have asked the court to order the forfeiture of NT$1.275 billion in criminal proceeds.

The case was overseen by Chief Prosecutor Luo Weiyuan, who emphasized that the suspects had conducted unlicensed financial operations in violation of Taiwan’s anti-money laundering laws.

The investigation also uncovered a separate fraud targeting the BitShine operators themselves. Prosecutors said a man surnamed Gu defrauded Shih and his associates of NT$3 million by falsely promising he could secure anti-money laundering registration approvals. Gu has also been indicted.

The global digital currency market cap valuation. | Source: TradingView.com

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Taiwan Is Rushing to Make Its Own Drones Before It's Too Late
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Taiwan Is Rushing to Make Its Own Drones Before It’s Too Late

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In the span of just a few years, drones have become instrumental in warfare. Conflicts in Ukraine, Iran, Nagorno-Karabakh, Sudan, and elsewhere have shown how autonomous vehicles have become a quintessential part of modern combat.

It’s a fact that Taiwan knows all too well. The island nation, fearing imminent invasion from China, has both the need, know-how, and industry necessary to build a robust and advanced drone program.

Yet Taiwan, which has set an ambitious target of producing 180,000 drones per year by 2028, is struggling to create this industry from scratch. Last year, it produced fewer than 10,000.

“Taiwan definitely has the ability to make the best drones in the world,” says Cathy Fang, a policy analyst at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET).

So why doesn’t it?

Designing a Hellscape

Fang and her colleagues published a lengthy report on June 16 that reveals just how sluggish Taiwan’s drone industry has been. According to their research, the country has produced between 8,000 and 10,000 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the past year, with “structural challenges” standing in the way of the current rate and the ambitious goal. Their study found that Taiwan’s drone production has been stymied by “high manufacturing costs, low domestic procurement, and minimal foreign government orders.”

Fang and other DSET researchers briefed WIRED on the details of their report in their Taipei offices in May.

Taiwan has lived under the threat of Chinese invasion for decades, but recent years have turned it into a more immediate possibility. Beijing has made clear that it intends to complete its aggressive modernization of the People’s Liberation Army by 2027; Taiwanese officials say invasion could come that early but almost certainly before Premier Xi Jinping’s current term in office ends in 2029.

While there are competing views about what form, exactly, Chinese military aggression could take, military analysts in Taiwan fear it could be a full combined arms onslaught: From air and sea at first, followed by a full land invasion.

That means Taiwan has an imperative to come up with innovative solutions to defend itself, and fast. As one American commander remarked in 2023, Taiwan’s self-defense will mean turning the Taiwan Strait into a “hellscape”—bombarding incoming Chinese ships and planes with swarms of uncrewed aerial and naval vehicles. This strategy doesn’t need to destroy the considerable Chinese navy and air force outright, but it does need to frustrate Beijing’s advances long enough for Taiwan’s allies to rally to its defense.

Taipei is already doing some of this right. In 2022, the government launched the Drone National Team, a program meant to match government and industry to scale up the nascent field. In particular, the team was dispatched to learn lessons from Ukraine, whose defensive strategy has relied heavily on small, tactical, cheap UAVs capable of carrying out multiple missions and integrating closely with ground units. Today, the country boasts a massive domestic drone industry, with Kyiv planning to buy 4.5 million small drones this year, on top of its long-range uncrewed missile program, its autonomous land vehicles, and its uncrewed naval drones.



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