Taiwan Quick Take: BOI denies phone bugging

The Bureau of Investigation (BOI) yesterday denied that it has been bugging the telephones of opposition Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅), whose latest exposure of a suspected overseas bank account belonging to the president's son has, he claimed, endangered his sources. He told a press conference that three of his sources who had provided information about the alleged bank account have received phone calls from a BOI official warning them that they would "end up very bad" if they did not stop digging into the family affairs of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Identifying the official as Chin Shao-hsing (秦少興), deputy director of the BIO's Sungshan office in Taipei, Chiu said Chin later changed his tone by offering to buy information from Chiu's sources in the US. He said he suspected that his phones have been illegally tapped, as the BIO official would otherwise not know the phone numbers of his overseas sources. The BOI denied that Chiu's telephones have been tapped.