Taipei judge says he resigned over media accusations

A Taipei judge told the media yesterday that he resigned last week in the wake of reports over his allegedly cozy relations with the operator of an illegal casino.

Taipei District Court judge Kuan Hsin-cheng (官信成) said that he knew Chi Ing-hsiang (紀英祥), a businessman who ran a large illegal baccarat casino in Taipei County which was busted by law enforcement officials last week. But Kuan said that they were just friends, and that he was not involved in any of Chi's businesses.

"Kuan offered his resignation last Monday, and he will step down [today]," Taipei District Court spokesman Liu Shou-sung (劉壽嵩) told the press yesterday.

The Chinese-language newspaper the China Times yesterday reported that Kuo Yung-fa (郭永發), a lead prosecutor at the Banciao District Prosecutors' Office, discovered Kuan and Chi's close relations while he was monitoring Chi's phone conversations. The two men had several phone conversations during Kuo's probe of the illegal gambling den.

Kuo the Taipei District Court's disciplinary authority of the matter and turned over all the evidence, the newspaper reported.

The report said that to avoid being investigated by the Taipei District Court, Kuan offered his resignation the day after the casino crackdown.

Kuan insisted that he was not involved in any illegal businesses, and as proof noted that if he had been, the tough prosecutor Kuo would have brought him to justice.

Banciao and police raided the gambling den in a high-rise building near a bustling department store in Yonghe (永和), Taipei County, last Sunday. The prosecutors later searched the offices of Tsai Jung-yuan (蔡榮源), the Sanchung (三重) Precinct chief who used to head the Yonghe police force. He was detained on suspicion of covering up the casino, but released on bail.

Chi was also released on bail.

Prosecutors that Tsai and a number of police officers received tens of millions in bribes from the casino over a number of years.

The National Police Agency last week announced that Tsai was suspended from his post.

Chi casinos on the Taiwan lines of a Singapore-based cruise company, Star Cruises, for 10 years. But the company stopped running its Taiwan lines in 2001. Prosecutors said that Chi had run illegal baccarat casinos in Taipei County since then, and had managed to cultivate good relations with police officers and judicial officials in order to protect his illegal business.

Independent Taipei City Councilor Lo Tsung-sheng (羅宗勝) was released on bail late last month after being detained for his alleged involvement in several extortion cases. Lo reportedly lost more than NT$2 million (US$61,000) while gambling in Chi's casino.