Taiwan charges conman who impersonated Li Ka-shing's secretary, celebrities

Taipei prosecutors have indicted an alleged con artist on charges of running scams by impersonating celebrities, including the secretary of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, to successfully steal over NT$100 (US$3.36) million, CNA reports.

The Taipei District Prosecutors Office is seeking "severe punishment" for Huang Chao-kang, better known by his alias Huang Chih, for his repeated involvement in fraud schemes between September 2017 and this April, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Huang, 28, has been detained and held incommunicado since April after the Taipei District Court approved a prosecutors' request to take Huang into custody.

One of Huang's accomplices in the case, Su Li-min, was also charged with fraud Tuesday.

According to the indictment, Huang is accused of impersonating Li's secretary in February in an attempt to scam 25,000 masks from Taiwanese mask manufacturer CSD amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Huang said Li wanted to purchase 25,000 masks and alcohol swabs to donate to National Taiwan University (NTU) when in fact he intended to obtain the medical supplies for private use, the indictment said.

CSD found the request to be a fake after contacting Li's office and NTU.

Huang was also accused of impersonating a member of the Cathay Group's Tsai family who was a lawyer capable of giving investment advice to clients and resolving financial disputes.

In that role, Huang successfully defrauded a woman surnamed Liu of over NT$100 million, the indictment said.

Another role assumed by Huang was as the secretary of Taiwanese banker Sung Hsueh-jen.

He used that false identity to contact the assistant of former NTU President Yang Pan-chyr to successfully arrange for the mother of one of his friends and himself to be admitted into NTU Hospital, where inpatient beds are usually in short supply.

Taipei prosecutors said Huang has been repeatedly involved in scams over the years and has shown no remorse and thus should be severely punished.

Huang first gained notoriety in Taiwan in his teens when he pretended to be a tarot card master and reportedly fooled former President Chen Shui-bian into holding a private session in September 2008.

Over the years, Huang was also involved in a number of impersonation scams as celebrities.

He was sentenced to seven-year prison term in 2012 on document forgery charges after he was caught posing as Wei Hong-fan, a second-generation member of the Wei family who controls Ting Hsin International Group, on credit card fraud.

He was released on parole on May 2016.