Sports advocates and athletes yesterday joined New Power Party Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) in filing a formal complaint against various sports associations for allegedly engaging in fraud in their membership drive.
Huang, star swimmer Tang Sheng-chieh (唐聖捷) and Lu Chi-hung (呂季鴻), who helped found the sports reform organization Fair Game! Taiwan!, called on the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office to launch a probe into sports associations and the Sports Administration.
“There have clearly been many illegal activities going on over the past several weeks,” Huang said. “We suspect that the sports associations are engaged in a massive collusion scheme, involving forgery of documents and setting up of dummy accounts to register large numbers of new members.”
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
Huang also asked the Cabinet to establish a task force to investigate allegations of organized fraud by the associations, alleging that government officials in the Sports Administration had abetted the fraudulent activity.
The public fully supports the reforms sought by athletes and are upbeat with the promulgation on Sept. 20 of amendments to the National Sports Act (國民體育法), which pushed for transparency and financial accountability in sports organizations, in addition to requiring them to accept individual memberships and to hold elections for executive positions, Huang said.
“Instead of getting reform, we are getting fraud,” he said. “The promised reform has turned into a huge joke.”
More than 60,000 members of the public in October filed applications to join various sports associations, but the final tally on Wednesday last week was just more than 170,000, Lu said, adding that most came in the final week.
“The total figure and the number of applicants in the final week were similar for the soccer and swimming bodies, because their executives colluded to commit fraud by exchanging and adding large blocks of dummy accounts,” Lu said. “The numbers were manipulated by insiders at these associations.”
“We also received complaints from people who said that they did not apply, but still received a notice to pay membership fees. There were also other irregularities indicating that private information was stolen to register people,” he added.
A judicial probe is needed “because these associations are guilty of stealing people’s identities and forging documents. Some Sports Administration officials knew and abetted the scheme, so they are complicit in these illegal activities,” Lu said.
Huang and Lu said that they had received reports from several people, saying they were sent text messages by the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association informing them that the membership fee has increased from NT$1,500 to NT$2,500 and requesting payment.
“However, these people said that they never applied to become members, so it is clear that someone stole their identity to use them as dummy accounts. This is outrageous,” Huang said.
The scheme likely involved exchanging large blocks of new applicants composed mainly of dummy accounts to ensure control over voting in the upcoming elections, Huang said.
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS