Taiwanese teen swindler gets six years in jail

TAIPEI - A Taiwanese teenager who gained notoriety when he tried to con ex-president Chen Shui-bian was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison for swindling $200,000 from American Express, a court said.

Huang Chao-kang, 19, was convicted of forging documents to pose as the son of a local tycoon to obtain the exclusive Centurion Card, also known as the black card, from American Express last year, the Taipei district court said.

Huang, also known as Huang Chi, was found to have charged and claimed about US$200,000 (S$250,000) on the card via a dummy company he had set up before he was arrested last year, it said. He can appeal the ruling.

The slim and softly spoken teenager entered the limelight in 2008 when he was arrested on forgery charges after appearing on television to boast about conning former president Chen by posing as a fortune teller.

The case caused a media sensation in Taiwan, with the then 16-year-old being compared to Leonardo DiCaprio's character in the 2002 film "Catch Me If You Can" and newspapers saying he had used multiple identities in a series of cons.

Ex-president Chen has denied Huang read tarot cards for him, but he has accused the teenager of trying to swindle money from him by arranging a ritual with three bogus Buddhist monks.

In further echoes of the Steven Spielberg film, based on the life of American teen swindler Frank Abagnale Jr, reports have also said Huang never went to high school and is estranged from his parents.

A juvenile court put Huang on probation for the previous forgery charges as he was a minor at the time.