The property dispute in the Keelung East Coast Mall continues to escalate, and Keelung Mayor Xie Guoliang responded strongly through a live stream on Facebook. In his response, he stated, “I do not need to do things that are detrimental to the citizens but beneficial to myself.” However, this statement has raised questions from the community: “What about the Ethereum from the Formosa Financial ICO case?”
(Background: Xie Guoliang was criticized for the “Formosa Financial ICO” case. Lawyer Jian Rongzong clarified that the responsibility had already been clarified.)
The property dispute in the Keelung East Coast Mall has recently caused controversy and unexpectedly sparked discussions among older cryptocurrency circles. It is understood that NET has accused Keelung Mayor Xie Guoliang of raiding the East Coast Mall, and during the process, he is suspected of committing crimes such as damage, illegal entry, coercion, and robbery.
Regarding the public’s criticism that Mayor Xie Guoliang “sold the East Coast Mall property to Weibin Enterprise at a low price,” Xie Guoliang responded strongly to this controversy in a live stream on Facebook on the 20th, criticizing NET for the increased floor levels being the work of the former mayor, Lin Youchang. He stated that it was actually Lin Youchang who made concessions to NET and said:
However, Xie’s “altruism” statement immediately attracted a large number of people to join the live stream, and many people criticized Xie Guoliang for lying, seemingly igniting the anger of some netizens.
Although comments were temporarily disabled during the live stream, Xie Guoliang still received more than 2,700 comments from netizens afterwards, and the number continues to increase. The comments on Xie Guoliang’s Facebook page have been polarized. Some supporters strongly support Xie Guoliang, but more expressed dissatisfaction and skepticism. Some netizens requested that he stop mentioning the achievements of the previous administration, while others openly expressed their hope for him to step down.
On Facebook, there is also a group called “Recall Xie Guoliang,” which expresses the dissatisfaction of the citizens. The Keelung citizens in the group tweeted that the first stage of the recall campaign only requires 3,200 signatures and called on citizens to support this action. This post quickly received responses from many citizens opposing Mayor Xie Guoliang, expressing their willingness to join the recall campaign.
This live stream attracted thousands of netizens to engage in heated debates in the comments section. This incident initially seemed to be a political dispute, but unexpectedly spread to the cryptocurrency community. In addition to comments such as “Xie Guoliang’s dark past in the cryptocurrency circle,” Ethan Yang, the head of Matrixport Taiwan, publicly mentioned in a Facebook post that in 2018, Xie Guoliang and Ma Ji, together with others, founded the blockchain project “Formosa Financial,” which was involved in a fraud case with up to 20,000 Ethereum. He exclaimed, “He’s really outrageous!” The comments below also indicate that the amount involved in the fraud case is enough to buy more than 80,000 Gogoro scooters for the citizens of Keelung.
It is understood that Formosa Financial was founded in early 2018 by Huang Licheng (Ma Ji), Xie Guoliang, Czhang Lin (a partner of JRR Crypto, an angel investor of Binance), and Ryan Terribilini. Formosa Financial is a treasury management platform created by a blockchain company and has depicted the vision of making Taiwan the “Asian blockchain center and Crypto Island,” attracting many Taiwanese people to invest.
In the last week of April 2018, Formosa Financial conducted an angel round of financing, raising 22,000 ETH. On May 31 of the same year, it conducted another private placement, raising another 22,000 ETH, totaling 44,000 ETH in two rounds of financing.
Formosa Financial had a strong presence at the time and attracted many well-known investors and projects to participate, including Binance, QCP Capital, Lemnis Cap, Block One, Huang Licheng, Maicoin, Wilson Huang, Leo Cheng’s Syndicate, Blockstate, and Appworks founder Jamie Lin as an advisor, forming a dream team in Taiwan.
Based on the Ethereum price in 2018, 44,000 ETH was worth about $24 million (approximately NT$740 million). However, if calculated based on the peak of the bull market in 2022, the amount of loss once grew to a value of $210 million (approximately NT$6.3 billion).
This also made it one of the largest financing cases in Taiwanese startup companies.
When Formosa Financial was launched, it promised the participants in the financing that the FMF tokens issued would be listed on top exchanges, and $FMF could be “used to exchange for services” and stabilize its value through “burning tokens to pay service fees.”
However, three weeks after the ICO, on June 22, 2018, the Formosa Financial treasury wallet was emptied twice, with a total of 11,000 ETH being transferred. At that time, Xie Guoliang and Huang Licheng had already left the team.
With the subsequent sharp decline in the FMF tokens and the gradual reduction in updates and explanations from the project team since the autumn of 2018, investors gradually realized that the project might have encountered some difficulties. In the following days, many Taiwanese senior executives also left.
Finally, in May 2019, Formosa Financial announced its merger and operation with CEZ EX, a digital asset exchange and ICO fundraising platform in the Philippines. Only Ryan Terribilini, the former CEO and co-founder of the project, remained as the company’s responsible person. However, the project now has little to do with Taiwan.
The project was initially established in Taiwan and set a record for raising a large amount of funds, but it has now distanced itself from Taiwan. Currently, Taiwan’s regulations still lack clear rules for ICOs, and many investors who purchased worthless tokens have no recourse.
In fact, during Xie Guoliang’s campaign for Keelung Mayor, his campaign office issued a press release stating that Xie Guoliang’s involvement in the Formosa Financial fraud case was purely an attempt to smear him. The spokesperson and lawyer, Jian Rongzong, clarified that “the person who embezzled the funds and fled was CEO Ryan Terribilini and CTO Lorne Lantz, and it has nothing to do with Xie Guoliang.”
In short, Jian Rongzong stated that Xie Guoliang had no involvement in the related fund flows. Formosa Financial hired him only to handle compliance-related matters and sought his connections and expertise to consult with relevant authorities such as the Financial Supervisory Commission. However, the government passed the buck on cryptocurrency regulation, and the matter was left unresolved. Xie Guoliang was subsequently fired by Formosa Financial.
Previously, cryptocurrency detective ZachXBT revealed on Twitter that the Formosa Financial wallet had two transfers totaling 22,000 ETH at the time when Xie Guoliang and Huang Licheng left the team, leading ZachXBT to claim that the funds were misappropriated by Xie Guoliang and Huang Licheng.
Huang Licheng responded to the media by stating that he was only a consultant, and in the interview, he mentioned that the flow of funds should be asked of CEO Ryan Terribilini and CTO Lorne Lantz. He claimed to have no knowledge of how the money was transferred.
Huang Licheng also claimed that Xie Guoliang was a victim and was later unjustifiably kicked out of the team by Ryan and Lorne, and it should have nothing to do with the fund flow.
This post mentioned that in addition to fund misappropriation, after Xie Guoliang left the team, the sharp decline of FMF tokens, the project’s subsequent evasion of responsibilities towards token buyers and investors, and the team’s abandonment of the project’s operation and status, Xie Guoliang, the former CEO and co-founder, has not come forward to clarify. Therefore, he has faced accusations from the community, and there is still no further information on the loss of funds in this case.
In summary, the perpetrator of the 22,000 ETH misappropriation is still to be determined, and there are conflicting statements from various parties. Although Jian Rongzong and Huang Licheng clarified that Xie Guoliang is not involved, Xie Guoliang himself has not come forward to explain, which has become a point of intense reaction from the community. After contacting with Ma Ji and ZachXBT, ZachXBT issued an apology and stated that Ma Ji is innocent.