Four former Taipei police officers were yesterday indicted on corruption charges for allegedly accepting bribes from nightclub and sex-trade operators.
Yesterday’s development was the latest in a widening investigation that started in 2017, with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office charging the four — surnamed Yang (楊), Wu (吳), Hou (侯) and Kao (郜) — along with three businessmen.
The four used to work at the Zhongshan Precinct First Police Station in Zhongshan District (中山),
Prosecutors said that evidence, including accounting records, receipts and witnesses’ testimonies, showed that the four officers received monthly bribes for “protecting” these establishments, such as calling them in advance if there was a police raid.
The officers received monthly bribes of about NT$15,000 from 2009 to 2017, usually in the form of cash from the proprietors of the Night King Club on Linsen N Road, the prosecutors said.
One of the proprietors, surnamed Chi (紀), and two other men, both surnamed Lee (李), were also indicted.
According to its online promotional material, the club provides entertainment services for women, offering male escorts for dining, drinking, dancing, partying, or just playing cards and chatting.
The investigation started in 2017 with a raid on Lipang Club and similar establishments in the area that provide dining, drinking and adult entertainment for men.
Some of the clubs were allegedly engaged in the sex trade.
Taipei prosecutors also charged Liu Chang-chi (劉昌祺), a section chief at Songshan Precinct in Songshan District (松山) who used to work at the Zhongshan Precinct First Police Station, with corruption and illicit profiting by a public functionary.
Liu is accused of withholding a penalty ticket issued to the proprietor of an adult establishment after a juvenile was found at the premises during a raid last year.
Liu is accused of having colluded with the proprietor and using his authority to hold back the ticket.
The first phase of the investigation resulted in the indictment of 10 Taipei police officers on corruption charges in July last year.
In the second phase, five more Taipei officers and one proprietor were charged in January.
The officers allegedly accepted bribes to shield these premises, some of which are suspected of working with international human trafficking rings to smuggle women from China and Southeast Asia to work in the sex business.
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