By OCCRP and The Reporter
BATUMI, Georgia — In May 2022, a man in a sharp navy suit stood at the center of a packed arena, basking in the cheers of thousands. He was being honored as the new president of FC Dinamo Batumi, the pride of Georgian football. To the public, he was Thomas Xu, a visionary tycoon from the Cambodia-based Lixin Group, promising to pour $370 million into the local economy.
But behind the philanthropic veneer and the private jets lay a dark reality: Thomas Xu is a convicted methamphetamine manufacturer from Taiwan who has been a fugitive for over a decade.
Thomas Xu (center) at a ceremony naming him honorary president of FC Batumi in May 2022.
An investigation by OCCRP and its partners has revealed that the “perfect foreign investor” is actually Hsu Ming-chin, a man wanted in Taiwan since 2014. Beyond his prior convictions, he is suspected by police in three countries of financing a $364-million drug shipment linked to the notorious Sam Gor syndicate, one of the world’s largest drug trafficking networks.
The Fugitive’s Rebirth
Xu’s criminal history began in the industrial city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. In 2009, an attempt to cook crystal meth in his apartment ended in an explosion. Despite a 12-year prison sentence handed down in 2012, Xu managed to flee the country using forged identities.
By 2021, he had reinvented himself in the South Caucasus.
“Thomas Xu seemed like the perfect foreign investor,” the investigation noted. He donated $100,000 to victims of a building collapse and sponsored local festivals. However, as journalists began digging, his ties to the Lixin Group—where he was previously touted as chairman—began to evaporate.
“Mr. Thomas Xu/Hsu Ming-chin is not involved in the business of any entity within the Lixin Group,” lawyers for the group stated in a written response, dismissing previous promotional materials identifying him as chairman as “factually incorrect.”
Shadows of the Sam Gor Syndicate
The investigation links Xu to a massive 2016 drug seizure in Okinawa, Japan. Customs officials discovered 597 kilograms of methamphetamine, a haul worth an estimated $364 million.
“The intel… allowed us to connect the meth seizure in Okinawa to the Sam Gor syndicate,” said a retired senior police officer involved in the multinational investigation. The syndicate, allegedly led by Tse Chi Lop—often called “Asia’s El Chapo”—is known for industrial-scale drug production in Myanmar’s Golden Triangle.
While Xu has not been charged in the Okinawa case, Taiwanese police confirmed they have been unable to pursue him due to the lack of an extradition treaty with Cambodia, where Xu holds citizenship.
The “Halcyon” Mirage
In Georgia, Xu’s flagship project was the Halcyon towers, set to be the tallest buildings in Batumi. Four years after the launch, the site remains a vacant lot.
Furthermore, architectural renderings of the towers posted on Lixin’s website appear to be copies of a design by the late Zaha Hadid for a project in China. Lixin representative Grant Tao called the images a “preliminary concept” and “not the final design.”
A Pattern of Opaque Investment
The investigation also uncovered links between Lixin executives and other controversial figures, including Lin Weixiong, a Chinese businessman wanted for corruption in the Philippines and suspected of drug trafficking involvement.
As Xu’s criminal past surfaced, his assets in Georgia—totaling millions of dollars—were systematically transferred to his brother, Hsu Ming-chao, the CEO of Lixin Group.
“No one has shown interest in uncovering what kind of financial groups and interests actually stand behind the so-called ‘major investor,'” said Malkhaz Chkadua of Transparency International Georgia. “Batumi may be turning into an attractive destination for transnational criminal actors.”
Despite the evidence, Lixin Group continues to deny any wrongdoing or connection to Xu’s criminal history, even as a 2025 U.N. report labeled the group a “major Mekong-based criminal enterprise.”
As of today, the Halcyon site remains a patch of dirt, a quiet monument to a billion-lari promise that has yet to break ground.
