Prosecutor's office will continue to probe origin of falsely advertised PPE

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/08
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Nantou District Prosecutor's Office said on Tuesday (Sept. 8) that the office seized a total of more than 210,000 masks of unknown origin that were falsely advertised as surgical-grade during raids in Nantou County coordinated with the Investigation Bureau and local health authorities.

The prosecutor's office said that a company owner surnamed Liu (劉) purchased 610,000 fake surgical masks, packaged them into boxes printed with the name of a national mask manufacturing team member without the company’s knowledge — Hung Wei Medical Consumable Co. — and then sold them to drugstores, according to CNA.

The prosecutor's office questioned Liu and three other people on Monday, and successfully obtained permission from the local court to detain Liu on suspicion of committing fraud and forgery and violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act.

The office was alerted to the fraud by a person who purchased the masks from a drugstore in Nantou City on Aug. 2. The consumer noticed that the name of the manufacturer, Hung Wei Medical Consumable Co., contained a blatant typo on the box.    [FULL  STORY]