Taiwan's criminal investigation bureau has busted an illegal money-transfer ring that used a cross-border shipping company as cover, a win for regulators trying to close money-laundering channels.

• A former electronics-company employee ran the operation with a logistics firm, moving NT$3.4 billion since 2018 for over a hundred clients.
• Cash was collected in Taiwan while foreign currency was paid out in South Korea, breaking the money trail into pieces that banks and police could not follow.
• Clients were recruited through WeChat groups and told to wire money to shell accounts, labeling the transfers as payments for goods.
• Crypto was part of the plumbing, alongside cash couriers pulling money from ATMs and hand-to-hand pickups.
• Eleven people were arrested in raids across 14 sites in Taipei and Taichung, with cash and foreign banknotes seized; the ring leader is out on bail.

Outlook: Prosecutors in Taipei are now building the case under banking and anti-money-laundering laws, and police are warning the public that using these services makes clients part of the crime.