Media outlets such as Liberty Times and CTWANT have revealed that Chen Tai-yuan, a so-called 'entrepreneurial genius' who co-founded '17 Live' with artist Huang Li-cheng and has the halo of a master's degree from National Taiwan University’s Department of Telecommunications, has recently been reported to have allegedly embezzled company assets and was searched by the police.
He is also accused of a series of astonishingly bizarre behaviors — from using the excuse of 'the men's restroom being full' to hide in the women's restroom, to moving company sofas and specific brand bottled water back to his home. This former startup golden boy now faces multiple charges including theft, embezzlement, breach of trust, and workplace bullying.
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Excuse of 'men's restroom being full' to hide in the women's restroom and force female employees to 'escort' him to the toilet
According to reports, there were internal complaints that Chen Tai-yuan's behavior in the workplace seriously crossed the line. In December 2022, Chen Tai-yuan was found hiding in the women's restroom of a commercial building for over 20 minutes, frightening other female employees when they heard a male coughing, even alarming the building's security. When questioned, Chen Tai-yuan absurdly claimed, 'I went to the women's restroom because the men's restroom was full.'
What further drove employees to despair was that afterward, Chen Tai-yuan not only did not restrain himself but also, fearing being reported, demanded female colleagues to 'accompany' him to the men's restroom or to leave the women's restroom with him. Under such bizarre demands for a long time, female employees were physically and mentally exhausted and officially filed a workplace bullying complaint with the Taipei City Labor Bureau in mid-November.
Paranoia? Extravagance? Only drinks 'Babylon Alkaline Mineral Water'?
In addition to the sexual harassment controversy, Chen Tai-yuan's financial and mental state has raised concerns among his partners. According to accusations from Chen's colleagues, he lives extravagantly with monthly expenses reaching a million, even demanding employees use their personal credit cards to cover his expenses, with a single month's amount reaching as high as 500,000 New Taiwan dollars.
In October this year, Chen Tai-yuan took advantage of his partner Hsu Ching-teng being abroad and unexpectedly found someone to empty the company's assets. In addition to computers, monitors, documents, and sofas, even personal belongings from employees' lockers were rummaged through. What was most shocking was that since Chen Tai-yuan usually only drinks 'Babylon Alkaline Mineral Water', he casually took the last 10 bottles of that brand of mineral water back to his home in Neihu.
Babylon Alkaline Mineral Water altered passwords to steal millions in virtual currency; police found incriminating evidence.
According to reports, police investigations revealed that Chen Tai-yuan is suspected of altering the passwords to the company's and shared virtual currency accounts with partners, transferring about 80,000 USDT into his personal wallet.
In response to accusations from the police and his partners, Chen Tai-yuan claimed that he is a shareholder of the company, and the items he moved home originally belonged to him for 'home office and accounting purposes', while using employee cards was compensation for previous company expenses. However, police executed a search warrant at his residence in late November and confiscated related computers and cold wallets as evidence, and relevant accounts have been frozen.
The former golden boy has become a defendant, overshadowed by violence.
Chen Tai-yuan has been controversial in the past, having driven a Lamborghini into a rice field in Yilan and has previously accused his ex-girlfriend of unauthorized credit card charges. Friends who know him well revealed that Chen has recently shown signs of losing control of his emotions and has developed paranoid delusions, having believed he would be betrayed after seeing a news report about 'the chairman killing the technical director', leading him to violently confront his partner Hsu Ching-teng and the company's CTO, even shouting and throwing furniture in the office.
Currently, the entire case has been referred to the Taipei City police for charges including theft, embezzlement, breach of trust, and obstruction of computer use, transferring Chen Tai-yuan for legal action. A once-promising startup star is now lamented by the industry and society due to a series of absurd actions.
This article about hiding in the women's restroom because the men's restroom was full? Stealing company sofas and mineral water? The former 'entrepreneurial genius' Chen Tai-yuan is involved in absurd actions such as embezzlement and sexual harassment, first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.
