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

Second of two parts
Done in partnership with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
Part 1: Pharmally boss Lin Weixiong entangled in Asia Pacific crime web

A businessman who has been evading a drug conviction in Taiwan posed as a Filipino and then became a naturalized Cambodian, an identity he ultimately used as a leader of a shady conglomerate which traces back to a person of interest in the Philippines — Lin Weixiong, the financial officer of the controversial Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation.

The businessman’s name is Hsu Ming-chin, who also goes by the name Thomas Xu. Thomas’ brother Hsu Ming-chao, the identified chairman of the conglomerate Lixin group, went into business with Lin Weixiong in Batumi, Georgia in 2023. This timeline means that after Lin Weixiong left the Philippines to evade the congressional investigations in Pharmally, he engaged in another controversial business venture.

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

Link to drugs

Hsu Ming-chin or Thomas Xu, the drug convict, has a spotty record that ultimately links to the Asia Pacific drug syndicate Sam Gor. This connection surfaced because Thomas Xu allegedly financed the smuggling of shabu from Taiwan to Okinawa, Japan in January 2016, according to Taiwanese police files and interviews obtained by The Reporter.

The OCCRP-led investigation found that the shabu haul was trafficked by the Sam Gor drug syndicate, according to two law enforcement agencies involved in the probe as well as internal presentations by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

In October 2018, Thomas Xu (or Hsu Ming-chin) obtained a Philippine passport as a different person — the Filipino man Xu Dong Enriquez supposedly born in Quezon City, although his passport was obtained from Bacolod City, capital of Negros Occidental in the Visayas. Rappler has seen this passport, and can confirm that Xu Dong Enriquez’s photo is the same man as Thomas Xu. 

Using his Filipino passport, Xu Dong Enriquez became a naturalized Cambodian in 2019, and that’s when he obtained the identity of Thomas Xu, according to naturalization documents. It is in Cambodia that Thomas Xu began to rise, particularly in the real estate sector.

Lixin is a prominent property company in Cambodia, building a new city near Sihanoukville. The UNODC, in a report earlier this year, detailed the expansion of a “major Mekong-based criminal enterprise” started by “two Taiwanese nationals.” Three people involved in writing the report confirmed to OCCRP that they were referring to the Lixin group. Lawyers for Hsu Ming-chao and Lixin denied any involvement in illegal activities.

The Batumi partnership

It’s unclear if Lin and Thomas Xu met each other in the Philippines. Thomas may have met many gambling personalities in the Philippines including the tycoon Jack Lam, according to a briefer that Rappler has also seen, showing a big group photo that has Lam and Thomas Xu in it. Three individuals, including two immigration officials under Duterte, are serving sentences for plunder after they accepted Lam’s bribe to release his Chinese workers in Fontana, Pampanga. Lam denied the accusation, but he left the country in February 2017 immediately after the issue blew up.

What we know is that Lin got into business with Hsu Ming-chao in Batumi, Georgia.

On Rose Nono Lin’s TikTok page, there is a post that shows Lin celebrating with his wife while drinking Georgian wine. Rose said in the post’s caption that they were in Batumi, and the time stamp indicated is November 14, 2022. 

On March 27, 2023, Rose posted a photo of the Batumi House of Justice, and called the city her “happy place.” We cannot be sure if Rose and Lin were in Batumi on March 27, 2023, but we know from company documents that on March 30, 2023, Lin Weixiong and Hsu Ming-chao’s wife signed a document approved by the Georgian Ministry of Justice registering their ownership of the company Business Center Pirimze, where Hsu Ming-chao owns 80% and Lin Weixiong owns 20%. 

Hsu Ming-chao’s lawyers confirmed the business partnership, but did not comment on Lin’s criminal charges in the Philippines.

“We can confirm that Mr. Lin Weixiong previously held a minority interest in Business Center Pirimze. However, he divested his shares well before any of the alleged incidents mentioned in your correspondence,” Lin’s Philippine lawyers from the Siguion Reyna, Montecillo & Ongsiako Law Firm told Rappler in an email on August 12, 2025.

“While certain shares were initially registered under his name, Mr. Lin no longer holds any ownership interest in the company and has already received full payment for the value of his divested shares,” Lin’s lawyers added.

But Business Center Pirimze filings made in September 2025, or a month after the lawyers told us he divested, still listed Lin as a shareholder. We sought clarification from Lin’s lawyers, but they said on January 12, 2026, that they “have reached out to our client regarding the specific documents and information you have requested.” They were informed of the date of publication.

The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission noted that the choice of location in Batumi, Georgia may “suggest a potential strategic interest in the region’s business environment” because of Batumi’s “casino-based economy,” according to a brief compiled by the commission. 

Lin Weixiong is still at large, and is wanted by the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan for charges relating to three allegedly anomalous contracts for coronavirus test kits worth a total of P4.1 billion.

POGO links

In the same year in 2023, the Lin couple was winding down the operations of their POGO, Rose told the House quad committee, referring to their company Xionwei Technology Co. Ltd. “‘Yung [pag-wrap up] ng corporate papers, inaayos pa po ‘yun pero wala na siyang operations, wala na lahat (We’re still processing the wrapping up of our corporate papers, but it has ceased operations, none now whatsoever),” Rose said on November 7, 2024. 

When asked what their source of wealth was, Rose said they have “two or three” more real estate companies outside of the ones being investigated by Philippine authorities. Rose said she’s just been at the backend of the family-owned businesses. She lost her candidacy as Quezon City’s 5th District representative in the 2025 midterm elections.

Xionwei was incorporated in 2016, when Duterte became president, but Lin Weixiong only entered the picture in 2018 when it became a POGO. The quad committee said Xionwei is linked to scamming because one of the service providers under Xionwei’s master license, Brickhartz Technology, operated out of Alice Guo’s Baofu compound in Bamban, Tarlac.

Aside from the Bamban connection, “Xionwei Technology shares the same email address as Brickhartz, the owner of the POGO dormitory in Cavite, where an abducted woman was reportedly bought and sold to a Chinese looking buyer,” said the House committee progress report.

Lin’s drug entanglements

The Lin couple has also been dragged into the 2023 smuggled shabu case in Mexico, Pampanga,  because the incorporators of the warehouse company that held the shipment include Linconn Ong, a co-incorporator of Pharmally. The warehouse’s other incorporator, Aedy Yang, is also an incorporator of a company called Golden Sun 999 Realty and Development Corporation whose 2023 officers include Rose Lin. Another Golden Sun incorporator is Jason Uson, a business partner of Michael Yang in several other companies.

Rose confirmed pretty much all of these company connections to the House especially those that are under her name. But when asked about her husband Weixiong Lin, Rose said in the November 4, 2024 hearing, “Hindi ko alam lahat ng kanyang business transaction” (I don’t know everything about his business transactions). “

What drew more attention to Lin was his connection to Yang, who has also absconded from the Philippines and never showed up in the House quad committee when they were investigating Duterte. “I cannot comment on Michael Yang because I don’t personally know him,” Rose said in English during that 14-hour hearing.

Yang and Weixiong Lin are central figures in the International Criminal Court witness’ affidavit, which later became a full-blown case of alleged crimes against humanity against Duterte. The former Philippine president has been detained at the ICC prison in The Hague since his March 11, 2025, arrest through an Interpol mechanism. The 80-year-old former strongman is awaiting trial there.

“There is really a necessity to establish the identity of this person [Lin] in order that we can also establish his links to these companies that are apparently involved in drugs and other financial scams all over the world,” said Barbers. – Rappler.com