Taiwanese prosecutors have broken up an alleged money laundering ring run through a scrap metal business, a win for tax authorities but a sign of how much dirty money moves through ordinary trading companies.

• Prosecutors in Taichung say scrap metal firm Jia Hong Metal and dozens of linked companies washed more than NT$10 billion.
• Seven people, including the company boss and his wife who handled the books, are being held without visitors.
• The ring allegedly used fake invoices and layers of bank accounts to dodge anti-laundering reporting and skip taxes.
• Tax losses from fake refund claims and evasion top NT$500 million.
• Investigators seized cash, four luxury cars including a Lamborghini, and froze hundreds of millions more.

Outlook: The case will move toward indictment while the remaining suspects stay out on bail, and tax authorities are likely to widen the net to other scrap metal traders.