Police yesterday said that a South African man living in Taipei who was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of staging his own daughter's kidnapping may have a history of fraudulent behavior.
The suspect, who cannot be named or pictured because of child-protection regulations, is suspected of faking the kidnapping to pay off debts incurred in setting up an Internet radio station.
Police said the suspect approached them on Thursday, claiming that he and his daughter had been in front of a post office in Muzha earlier in the day when three men on two scooters pulled up and snatched the girl. He said he was instructed by the men to await instructions before they sped away.
Several minutes later, the suspect said he received two text messages demanding NT$5 million (US$153,000) in exchange for the return of his daughter.
The suspect and his Taiwanese wife later went to the Muzha police station to report the matter, but when police said that they would start investigating the case, the wife allegedly fled.
Police then began looking at surveillance videos of the post office area and found that the suspect and his daughter had not been walking there as the suspect had claimed.
Later, police discovered the suspect's daughter at a kindergarten where she was not enrolled, and learned that her father had told her he would return for her later in the day. Police then intercepted the suspect and arrested him when he arrived to collect her.
The suspect allegedly confessed to staging the kidnapping to pay off debts incurred in trying to set up an English-language radio station. One identifiable poster on Forumosa.com, a Web site dedicated to Taiwan's expatriates, alleged that the suspect defrauded him out of NT$548,000. The administrator and other members of Forumosa were also said to have been involved in setting up the radio station, and expressed dismay at the news of the staged kidnapping and the possibility that the radio project was a also a scam.
Police are now looking into allegations that the suspect has defrauded other victims in separate incidents.
Complaints were apparently lodged with police as long ago as July from parents of children at an English-language cram school where the suspect worked. The complainants apparently claimed that he had defrauded them out of NT$1 million in relation to a promised summer camp for the children in South Africa which never materialized.
ONGOING PROBE: A former Military Intelligence Bureau colonel, major general and another colonel, as well as five other people, have been questioned by prosecutors The Taipei District Court yesterday ordered that a retired colonel from the Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB) calling himself Taiwan’s “first special agent” be detained and held incommunicado as part of an ongoing investigation into espionage allegations targeting at least three former bureau officials. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office was seeking to detain former MIB colonel Chang Chao-jan (張超然) over his alleged involvement in introducing retired agents to Chinese national security authorities and passing confidential documents to China. Chang’s actions, if proven, would contravene the National Security Act (國家安全法), which carries a prison term of three to 10 years, and the National Intelligence
The US House of Representatives’ China Task Force, launched by Republicans earlier this year, yesterday proposed the China task force act, a package of 137 pieces of legislation, seven of which involve Taiwan, in the hope of getting it passed before the 117th US Congress convenes on Jan. 3. The act encompasses a wide range of issues, including combatting Beijing’s influence around the globe, establishing the US’ dominance in determining 5G network standards and means for bringing UN members to task for abusing their influence within the UN system. The seven acts involving Taiwan address concerns such as the Taiwan Assurance Act
Chinese health authorities investigating a COVID-19 outbreak have said that they discovered live coronavirus on frozen food packaging, a finding that suggests the virus can survive in cold supply chains. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday said that it had found traces of live COVID-19 on the outer packaging of frozen cod in the eastern city of Qingdao, marking the first time that live coronavirus has been detected on the outside of refrigerated goods. Researchers were investigating the source of a cluster of cases linked to a hospital in Qingdao. Genetic traces had previously been found in samples of
A Chinese soldier apprehended earlier this week by the Indian Army after he strayed across a tense de facto border was on Tuesday night handed back to China, an Indian government source in New Delhi said yesterday. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldier had on Monday been captured in the Demchok area of eastern Ladakh, the Indian Army said in a statement. The Chinese military also released a statement, saying that Corporal Wang Yalong was handed over early yesterday. New Delhi on Monday said that it had detained Wang after he crossed into Indian-controlled territory, while China announced that Wang had gotten
RSS