Recently, I came across a Taiwanese financial case that’s truly outrageous, and I have to vent.

Here's what happened. The company Kangyou-KY, once hyped as the “King of Biotech Stocks,” was later exposed for embezzling over 20 billion NT dollars. The mastermind was an Indonesian-Chinese businessman named Wang Mingliang, who had already fled the country and is now wanted. Another accomplice, Huang Wenlie, was sentenced to 30 years.

But that’s not even the most insane part. In 2019, this wanted fugitive Wang Mingliang actually borrowed USD 17.2 million (about 550 million NT dollars) from Antai Bank, using Kangyou stock and other company shares as collateral. After the Kangyou scandal broke, this money naturally couldn’t be recovered and turned into a bad debt for the bank.

Most people would have given up here, right? But I’ve never seen a bank operate like this. In 2020, even though Wang Mingliang was already a wanted fugitive, the bank still approved a loan of USD 17 million (about 540 million NT dollars) to him (through a shell company called Shuguang), under the guise of “purchasing non-performing loans.” In other words, they used new bank money to buy back their own old debts, then took the collateral. One scam wasn’t enough, so they actively handed him the opportunity to be scammed a second time.

Of course, this new loan also turned into a non-performing asset.

The most outrageous part is the punishment. Last month (April 2), the Investigation Bureau raided Antai Bank and questioned two involved managers—Assistant Manager Huang Yijian and Deputy Manager Zheng Kehao. The result? Huang posted bail for NT$150k, Zheng for NT$50k. The involved amount was NT$540 million, but the bail money was only NT$5,000—about 0.0009%. Just think about that number.

Compare that to ordinary employees who can’t pay their mortgage and get chased by banks. But if you’re inside the bank and help a fugitive escape with NT$540 million, your bail is the equivalent of an iPhone. The rules for the wealthy are definitely different.

The mastermind behind the NT$20.1 billion embezzlement case is still overseas, living freely. The bank executives who helped him get away? They can go home after paying just NT$5,000. And what about the tens of thousands of Kangyou shareholders who got scammed? Not a single penny recovered. Such stories are so exaggerated they could be in a novel or a script, but they’re real. Looking at cases like these, you understand why people are so attracted to scams—because the punishment for financial fraud is just too light.