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Court reverses casino convictions

A gambling mogul's tale * Chou was found to have established a network of casinos in northern Taiwan from 1988 until 1996. * It was discovered that Chou had bribed a number of police officials in exchange for hiding his illegal activities. * Chou was found guilty of operating the gambling network in 1997 and served two years for the offense. * A three-judge panel reasoned yesterday that the gambling charge and the bribery charge were related, and he therefore should not be punished for the same offense again under the doctrine of double jeopardy.

The Taiwan High Court has dropped bribery charges against a former casino mogul and reversed bribery convictions against several police officers in its ruling in a high-profile corruption scandal yesterday.

In a dramatic reversal, the court dismissed charges under the doctrine of double jeopardy against Chou Jen-sen (周人蔘), 50, a billionaire who owned a large network of gambling video-game parlors.

Chou was found to have run a network of gambling casinos in northern Taiwan from 1988 until 1996, when the gambling network was broken by investigation agencies.

In the process of the investigation, it was discovered that Chou had bribed a number of police officials in exchange for covering up the illegal venues, allowing Chou's empire to expand.

The case eventually turned into the largest case of police corruption in the history of Taipei City, reaching into the highest corners of police and prosecuting authorities.

Some 196 people were indicted for involvement in the scandal, among whom were high-ranking police officers.

Some of them were subsequently acquitted and some are still serving prison terms.

Chou was found guilty of operating the gambling network in 1997 and has served a jail term of two years for the offense.

He was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison in a previous ruling by the High Court for the gambling charges.

Later, in a review of the case by the High Court ordered by the Supreme Court, the sentence was changed to eight years and six months.

Yesterday's ruling is the result of a second review by the High Court of the five-year-old court case.

A three-judge panel reasoned yesterday that the gambling charge and the bribery charge were related, because the bribery "was to secure operation of the gambling video game parlors."

Therefore, the panel decided Chou and three of his employees also involved should not be punished for the offense again because a conviction had already been entered.

Of the 33 defendants in the second review, 20 were acquitted, including former chief of the Sungshan Police Bureau Chen Yen-min (陳衍敏), former chief of the Chungshang Police Bureau Cheng Wen-tien (程文典), and former chief prosecutor at the Panchiao District Prosecutors' Office Hung Chia-yi (洪家儀).

Lee Hsiang-chu (李相助), one of the three judges, noted that previous convictions of the three police officials were based on other co-defendants' testimonies which, he said, contradicted one another.

The High Court panel reversed convictions against the three high-ranking officials and acquitted them of the corruption charges, because there was no direct evidence of their involvement in the scandal.

The ruling yesterday has been criticized as too lenient and the prosecution is considering appealing the case to the Supreme Court.
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