Jiuzhou Gaming Group was involved in a 43.8 billion yuan money laundering case. The first instance sentenced Chen Zhenggu to 11 years in August and Xu Peijing to 7 years in prison.

Jiuzhou Gaming Group was involved in a 43.8 billion yuan money laundering case, and Xu Peijing, nicknamed the "most beautiful director", was sentenced to 7 years in prison. (File photo)

Jiuzhou Gaming Group was involved in a 43.8 billion yuan money laundering case. The Taichung District Court announced today (2nd) the first instance verdict. "Ten billion president" Chen Zhenggu was involved in organized crime, corruption and bribery. He was sentenced to 8 years in June and 5 years in February, with an execution date of 11 years in August. He was deprived of public power for 5 years and fined 90 million yuan. The "most beautiful director" Xu Peijing and former TV reporter Shi Zhenkang were each sentenced to 7 years and 5 years. They can appeal.

The whole case originated from the fact that when the Qiaotou District Prosecutor's Office was investigating a fraud case, it discovered that some of the stolen money had flowed to Ganggu Technology Company in Taichung City, so it requested the Taichung District Prosecutor's Office to investigate, further revealing the huge financial flow of the Jiuzhou Gaming Group. Prosecutors found that Jiuzhou Group developed a third-party payment system "OnePaid" through its subsidiaries for use by gambling and fraud groups. Over the past five years, related gambling profits amounted to 43.8 billion yuan, and it used multiple companies to transfer funds.

The Taichung District Prosecutor's Office has launched a large-scale investigation since 2024. It has launched multiple waves of searches against important members, related companies and strongholds of the Kyushu Group, and seized properties such as real estate, luxury cars, cash and deposits, with a total value of more than 4.1 billion yuan, and successively investigated and prosecuted Chen Zhenggu and others. Among them, Chen Zhenggu was accused by the prosecutor of being a core figure of the Kyushu Group, and his subordinates handled gaming websites, third-party payment and financial services.

Xu Peijing is one of the important cadres of the Jiuzhou Group. She also became another high-profile figure in this case because of her close relationship with Lin Mingzuo, the captain of the Taichung City Criminal Division at the time. When the prosecutors traced the financial flow of the Jiuzhou Group, they accidentally discovered that Lin Mingzuo, the then captain of the Taichung City Criminal Division and later promoted to the police superintendent, was suspected of taking advantage of his position. He leaked police investigation information on behalf of the Jiuzhou Group and accepted a price. The prosecutor determined that Lin was involved in corruption of more than 40 million yuan. Later, due to cancer and poor health, he changed his name to Lin Kangcheng. He is still unable to complete the debate process due to health reasons, so he is being tried separately from other defendants in this case, and the verdict has not yet been announced.

Chen Zhenggu (middle), who has the title of "Ten Billion CEO", should serve until August 2011. (File photo)