Five Greater Taichung police officers and an agent from the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau (MJIB) were indicted yesterday on suspicion of long-term bribe-taking from owners of illegal businesses.
In the indictment, Greater Taichung prosecutors requested that the district court hand the defendants heavy sentences.
Prosecutors said a man surnamed Yang (楊) had run several prostitution businesses in the Taichung area since 1996, including brothels and hostess bars.
They said an investigation into Yang’s activities showed he had a long history of bribing defendants — six have been identified so far — to ensure his illegal operations were not busted.
Prosecutors said the defendants had not only turned a blind eye to Yang’s activities for some time, they had also leaked confidential information to Yang several times after other police officials made him the target of their investigation.
Prosecutors said that Yang offered bribes of between NT$100,000 (US$3,000) and NT$400,000 per month for a period of more than 10 years.
In total, Yang is believed to have disbursed about NT$30 million during that period, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors requested that the district court sentence an MJIB agent surnamed Chu (朱) and a police officer surnamed Kang (康) to 25 years in prison.
In addition, sentences of between 18 years and 22 years were requested for three other police officers, while a two-and-a-half-year sentence was requested for another officer who, while not accepting bribes, was believed to have passed on confidential information to Yang.
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