Taiwanese Businessman Sentenced to Four Years in Prison for Olive Oil Fraud

Summary

Former chair­man of Wei Chuan Foods Corp, Wei Ying-chung, was sen­tenced to four years in prison and fined over $15 mil­lion for sell­ing adul­ter­ated oil prod­ucts mar­keted as high-grade olive oil, deemed harm­ful to pub­lic health. Eleven other defen­dants were also found guilty of sim­i­lar vio­la­tions, with sen­tences rang­ing from five months to four years, and the com­pany was accused of con­tract­ing tainted oil to cut costs and increase prof­its.

In one of the most egre­gious and exten­sive exam­ples of food fraud, forgery, and reg­u­la­tory vio­la­tions ever pros­e­cuted in East Asia, the for­mer chair­man of Wei Chuan Foods Corp was found guilty in a Taipei court­room of sell­ing adul­ter­ated oil prod­ucts.

Wei Ying-chung was sen­tenced to a four-year prison term and fined more than $15 mil­lion for blend­ing infe­rior grade palm and other low-cost oils into a mix­ture that was then mar­keted as high-grade olive oil. The court deemed the prod­ucts, which also con­tained arti­fi­cial col­or­ing, harm­ful to pub­lic health, and many observers felt the chair­man got off easy, accord­ing to reports in the Taipei Times.

Eleven other defen­dants were also found guilty of cre­at­ing fraud­u­lent prod­uct labels and other ​“breaches of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation,” accord­ing to the rul­ing on March 26. Among them were employ­ees of both Wei Chuan Corp. and Ting Hsin Oil and Fat. Each received sen­tences rang­ing from five months to four years.

A story in 4‑Traders on the day the ver­dicts were announced delved fur­ther into the depths the com­pany was appar­ently will­ing to sink to to cut costs and raise prof­its at the expense of their con­sumers.

“Wei Chuan started to con­tract Ting Hsin Oil and Fat in 2007 to pur­chase tainted oil that con­tains cop­per chloro­phyll from Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co. and then pack­aged it for (sale),” pros­e­cu­tors said.

“After news of the sub­stan­dard oil sur­faced, Wei Chuan tried to cover it up by prepar­ing false oil inspec­tion reports,” they added.

Lawyers for the defen­dants say they will appeal the rul­ings, though for the most part, the cur­rent sen­tences may be reduced or event fore­gone in lieu of mon­e­tary dis­pen­sa­tion.