Thomas Xu, a man born in Taiwan who was publicly presented as a major foreign investor in Georgia’s coastal city of Batumi, is a wanted drug criminal, according to an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an international investigative journalism network.
The investigation report, titled “The Phantom Investor: How a Wanted Meth Kingpin Posed as a Tycoon in Georgia“ and published on January 21, states that Thomas Xu was born in Taiwan as Hsu Ming-chin and was convicted there in 2012 for manufacturing methamphetamine and related crimes. He fled Taiwan in 2014 before serving his sentence and obtained Philippine and Cambodian citizenship under different names, before eventually arriving in Georgia.
OCCRP reports that Xu is also suspected by police in three countries of financing a USD 363 million drug shipment seized in Japan in 2016 and connected to a major Asian drug trafficking syndicate. He has not been charged in that case, according to the report, partly because Taiwan does not have an extradition treaty with Cambodia.
According to OCCRP, Xu arrived in Georgia in 2021, presenting himself as a representative of Lixin Group, a Cambodia-based real estate company, and promising large-scale investment plans in Batumi. In 2022, he was publicly named honorary president and main sponsor of FC Dinamo Batumi during a ceremony at the club’s stadium, pledging an investment of GEL 1 million (about USD 370,000). Georgian government-affiliated media reports, cited by OCCRP, highlighted Xu as a major foreign investor, featuring images of him with his alleged family and the proposed Halcyon waterfront towers in Batumi.
According to OCCRP, companies linked to Lixin Group acquired nearly USD 23 million in Georgian real estate, including a stake in the planned Halcyon development. Xu later transferred these assets to his partner, Cheng Ya-Wen, who then handed them to Xu’s older brother, Hsu Ming-chao, described by OCCRP as Lixin’s “public face” and chief executive. Batumi’s Halcyon towers, which were supposed to be what Lixin Group promoted as the “tallest building in Georgia” and a “world-class landmark,” remain unbuilt four years later.
Lixin Group has denied that Thomas Xu ever had any connection to the company, OCCRP said, despite his name appearing as chairman on Lixin’s website and social media channels. The company said it is not involved in any illegal activity and removed references to Xu following OCCRP inquiries. Transparency International-Georgia, a local corruption watchdog, criticized what it described as “opaque investments” in Batumi, warning that the city’s growing real estate sector could be vulnerable to transnational criminal interests.
“Batumi may be turning into an attractive destination for transnational…criminal actors,” Malkhaz Chkadua, TI-Georgia’s Batumi office coordinator, told OCCRP. Meanwhile, he added, “the interests of residents and the city’s urban development are largely disregarded.”
Thomas Xu and his brother are reportedly no longer in Georgia. Their current whereabouts remain unknown.
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