Taiwan drug convict poses as Filipino, hyperlinks to Pharmally boss Lin Weixiong

Second of two components
Achieved in partnership with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Mission
Half 1: Pharmally boss Lin Weixiong entangled in Asia Pacific crime internet

A businessman who has been evading a drug conviction in Taiwan posed as a Filipino after which grew to become a naturalized Cambodian, an identification he in the end used as a frontrunner of a shady conglomerate which traces again to an individual of curiosity within the Philippines — Lin Weixiong, the monetary officer of the controversial Pharmally Pharmaceutical Company.

The businessman’s identify is Hsu Ming-chin, who additionally goes by the identify Thomas Xu. Thomas’ brother Hsu Ming-chao, the recognized chairman of the conglomerate Lixin group, went into enterprise with Lin Weixiong in Batumi, Georgia in 2023. This timeline signifies that after Lin Weixiong left the Philippines to evade the congressional investigations in Pharmally, he engaged in one other controversial enterprise enterprise.

Lin’s connection to the Hsu brothers is a part of a long-term investigation led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Mission (OCCRP) and its reporting companions The Reporter in Taiwan, Voice of Democracy in Cambodia, the Governance Monitoring Heart in Georgia, and Rappler within the Philippines.

Hyperlink to medicine

Hsu Ming-chin or Thomas Xu, the drug convict, has a spotty file that in the end hyperlinks to the Asia Pacific drug syndicate Sam Gor. This connection surfaced as a result of Thomas Xu allegedly financed the smuggling of shabu from Taiwan to Okinawa, Japan in January 2016, in accordance with Taiwanese police information and interviews obtained by The Reporter.

The OCCRP-led investigation discovered that the shabu haul was trafficked by the Sam Gor drug syndicate, in accordance with two regulation enforcement companies concerned within the probe in addition to inside shows by the United Nations Workplace on Medication and Crime (UNODC).

In October 2018, Thomas Xu (or Hsu Ming-chin) obtained a Philippine passport as a unique individual — the Filipino man Xu Dong Enriquez supposedly born in Quezon Metropolis, though his passport was obtained from Bacolod Metropolis, capital of Negros Occidental within the Visayas. Rappler has seen this passport, and might verify that Xu Dong Enriquez’s photograph is identical man as Thomas Xu. 

Utilizing his Filipino passport, Xu Dong Enriquez grew to become a naturalized Cambodian in 2019, and that’s when he obtained the identification of Thomas Xu, in accordance with naturalization paperwork. It’s in Cambodia that Thomas Xu started to rise, notably in the actual property sector.

Lixin is a outstanding property firm in Cambodia, constructing a brand new metropolis close to Sihanoukville. The UNODC, in a report earlier this 12 months, detailed the growth of a “main Mekong-based prison enterprise” began by “two Taiwanese nationals.” Three individuals concerned in writing the report confirmed to OCCRP that they had been referring to the Lixin group. Attorneys for Hsu Ming-chao and Lixin denied any involvement in unlawful actions.

The Batumi partnership

It’s unclear if Lin and Thomas Xu met one another within the Philippines. Thomas could have met many playing personalities within the Philippines together with the tycoon Jack Lam, in accordance with a briefer that Rappler has additionally seen, displaying an enormous group photograph that has Lam and Thomas Xu in it. Three people, together with two immigration officers beneath Duterte, are serving sentences for plunder after they accepted Lam’s bribe to launch his Chinese language staff in Fontana, Pampanga. Lam denied the accusation, however he left the nation in February 2017 instantly after the problem blew up.

What we all know is that Lin obtained into enterprise with Hsu Ming-chao in Batumi, Georgia.

On Rose Nono Lin’s TikTok web page, there’s a submit that exhibits Lin celebrating along with his spouse whereas consuming Georgian wine. Rose mentioned within the submit’s caption that they had been in Batumi, and the time stamp indicated is November 14, 2022. 

On March 27, 2023, Rose posted a photograph of the Batumi Home of Justice, and known as town her “blissful place.” We can’t be certain if Rose and Lin had been in Batumi on March 27, 2023, however we all know from firm paperwork that on March 30, 2023, Lin Weixiong and Hsu Ming-chao’s spouse signed a doc permitted by the Georgian Ministry of Justice registering their possession of the corporate Enterprise Heart Pirimze, the place Hsu Ming-chao owns 80% and Lin Weixiong owns 20%. 

Hsu Ming-chao’s attorneys confirmed the enterprise partnership, however didn’t touch upon Lin’s prison costs within the Philippines.

“We will verify that Mr. Lin Weixiong beforehand held a minority curiosity in Enterprise Heart Pirimze. Nonetheless, he divested his shares nicely earlier than any of the alleged incidents talked about in your correspondence,” Lin’s Philippine attorneys from the Siguion Reyna, Montecillo & Ongsiako Regulation Agency informed Rappler in an e mail on August 12, 2025.

“Whereas sure shares had been initially registered beneath his identify, Mr. Lin not holds any possession curiosity within the firm and has already acquired full fee for the worth of his divested shares,” Lin’s attorneys added.

However Enterprise Heart Pirimze filings made in September 2025, or a month after the attorneys informed us he divested, nonetheless listed Lin as a shareholder. We sought clarification from Lin’s attorneys, however they mentioned on January 12, 2026, that they “have reached out to our shopper concerning the particular paperwork and knowledge you’ve requested.” They had been knowledgeable of the date of publication.

The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Fee famous that the selection of location in Batumi, Georgia could “counsel a possible strategic curiosity within the area’s enterprise setting” due to Batumi’s “casino-based financial system,” in accordance with a quick compiled by the fee. 

Lin Weixiong continues to be at massive, and is needed by the anti-graft courtroom Sandiganbayan for costs relating to a few allegedly anomalous contracts for coronavirus check kits price a complete of P4.1 billion.

POGO hyperlinks

In the identical 12 months in 2023, the Lin couple was winding down the operations of their POGO, Rose informed the Home quad committee, referring to their firm Xionwei Expertise Co. Ltd. “‘Yung [pag-wrap up] ng company papers, inaayos pa po ‘yun pero wala na siyang operations, wala na lahat (We’re nonetheless processing the wrapping up of our company papers, but it surely has ceased operations, none now in any respect),” Rose mentioned on November 7, 2024. 

When requested what their supply of wealth was, Rose mentioned they’ve “two or three” extra actual property corporations outdoors of those being investigated by Philippine authorities. Rose mentioned she’s simply been on the backend of the family-owned companies. She misplaced her candidacy as Quezon Metropolis’s fifth District consultant within the 2025 midterm elections.

Xionwei was integrated in 2016, when Duterte grew to become president, however Lin Weixiong solely entered the image in 2018 when it grew to become a POGO. The quad committee mentioned Xionwei is linked to scamming as a result of one of many service suppliers beneath Xionwei’s grasp license, Brickhartz Expertise, operated out of Alice Guo’s Baofu compound in Bamban, Tarlac.

Other than the Bamban connection, “Xionwei Expertise shares the identical e mail tackle as Brickhartz, the proprietor of the POGO dormitory in Cavite, the place an kidnapped lady was reportedly purchased and bought to a Chinese language trying purchaser,” mentioned the Home committee progress report.

Lin’s drug entanglements

The Lin couple has additionally been dragged into the 2023 smuggled shabu case in Mexico, Pampanga,  as a result of the incorporators of the warehouse firm that held the cargo embrace Linconn Ong, a co-incorporator of Pharmally. The warehouse’s different incorporator, Aedy Yang, can also be an incorporator of an organization known as Golden Solar 999 Realty and Growth Company whose 2023 officers embrace Rose Lin. One other Golden Solar incorporator is Jason Uson, a enterprise companion of Michael Yang in a number of different corporations.

Rose confirmed just about all of those firm connections to the Home particularly these which might be beneath her identify. However when requested about her husband Weixiong Lin, Rose mentioned within the November 4, 2024 listening to, “Hindi ko alam lahat ng kanyang enterprise transaction” (I don’t know every part about his enterprise transactions). “

What drew extra consideration to Lin was his connection to Yang, who has additionally absconded from the Philippines and by no means confirmed up within the Home quad committee after they had been investigating Duterte. “I can’t touch upon Michael Yang as a result of I don’t personally know him,” Rose mentioned in English throughout that 14-hour listening to.

Yang and Weixiong Lin are central figures within the Worldwide Prison Courtroom witness’ affidavit, which later grew to become a full-blown case of alleged crimes towards humanity towards Duterte. The previous Philippine president has been detained on the ICC jail in The Hague since his March 11, 2025, arrest via an Interpol mechanism. The 80-year-old former strongman is awaiting trial there.

“There’s actually a necessity to ascertain the identification of this individual [Lin] so that we will additionally set up his hyperlinks to those corporations which might be apparently concerned in medicine and different monetary scams everywhere in the world,” mentioned Barbers. – Rappler.com