Police yesterday arrested nine suspects for blackmailing Olympic gold medalist in taekwondo, Chu Mu-yen (朱木炎). Investigators said that they were members of a cross-strait criminal ring that has cheated and threatened countless victims out of large amounts of money.
"The nine arrested were responsible for blackmailing victims and finding ways to take money from them," said Chiang Kuei-chang (姜貴昌), spokesman for the Taoyuan Prosecutors' Office yesterday.
"But the main suspects are the Lo brothers, Lo Shih-hsiung (羅世雄) and Lo Shih-kang (羅世剛), who lived in China and directed the criminals in Taiwan about how to commit the crimes," Chiang added.
"Some Chinese and Hong Kong people were also involved in the crimes," he added.
"To avoid being detected by the police, some of the threatening calls were made from China," he said.
Police said Chu talked to a young girl in a Yahoo chatroom in April, who had posted her photograph on the Internet. After chatting several times online, Chu told the girl his cellphone number.
After several telephone conversations, Chu exposed the fact that he was a well-known athlete.
Police said that the members of the crime ring then threatened to make public Chu's online conversations with the girl, which contained some sexual elements. Chu was afraid that exposing the matter would seriously damage his reputation, and therefore paid the group NT$1.1 million on April 29, police said.
Chu told police that the criminals continued to threaten him even after he paid the money.
Stones were thrown at his parents' house in Taoyuan on May 9, breaking windows.
Chu then reported the matter to the police.
Police said the criminal gang did not stop committing crimes after the situation was made public.
Police then located the ring and nine suspects were arrested in Hsinchu County yesterday morning, seizing several victims' bank accounts, checks and credit cards during the search. Police also found sticks, knives and other weapons.
Police said that before the ring was broken yesterday, only May 19, the suspects had successfully extorted more than NT$3 million in "dirty money" from the victims.
Police said on May 14 that another victim was cheated by the ring. He was told that he had won the lottery but needed to pay money to the lottery company before he could receive the award. The victim paid the ring more than NT$4 million.
According to police, the criminal group used online chat rooms and sexual advertising to defraud people.
They also deceived people by telling them they had won the lottery or that their families had been kidnapped.
Chu and Chen Shih-hsin (陳詩欣) won two of the country's first Olympic gold medals in the taekwondo competition during the Athens Games last year.
Chu is a graduate student at the National College of Physical Education and Sports.
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