Police yesterday said that a South African man living in Taipei who was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of staging his own daughter's kidnapping may have a history of fraudulent behavior.
The suspect, who cannot be named or pictured because of child-protection regulations, is suspected of faking the kidnapping to pay off debts incurred in setting up an Internet radio station.
Police said the suspect approached them on Thursday, claiming that he and his daughter had been in front of a post office in Muzha earlier in the day when three men on two scooters pulled up and snatched the girl. He said he was instructed by the men to await instructions before they sped away.
Several minutes later, the suspect said he received two text messages demanding NT$5 million (US$153,000) in exchange for the return of his daughter.
The suspect and his Taiwanese wife later went to the Muzha police station to report the matter, but when police said that they would start investigating the case, the wife allegedly fled.
Police then began looking at surveillance videos of the post office area and found that the suspect and his daughter had not been walking there as the suspect had claimed.
Later, police discovered the suspect's daughter at a kindergarten where she was not enrolled, and learned that her father had told her he would return for her later in the day. Police then intercepted the suspect and arrested him when he arrived to collect her.
The suspect allegedly confessed to staging the kidnapping to pay off debts incurred in trying to set up an English-language radio station. One identifiable poster on Forumosa.com, a Web site dedicated to Taiwan's expatriates, alleged that the suspect defrauded him out of NT$548,000. The administrator and other members of Forumosa were also said to have been involved in setting up the radio station, and expressed dismay at the news of the staged kidnapping and the possibility that the radio project was a also a scam.
Police are now looking into allegations that the suspect has defrauded other victims in separate incidents.
Complaints were apparently lodged with police as long ago as July from parents of children at an English-language cram school where the suspect worked. The complainants apparently claimed that he had defrauded them out of NT$1 million in relation to a promised summer camp for the children in South Africa which never materialized.
Three cases of Candida auris, a fungus that can cause a yeast infection known as candidiasis in humans, have been reported in Taiwan over the past few years, but they did not display drug resistance, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said yesterday. Lo made the statement at a news conference in Taipei, one day after the Washington Post reported that the potentially deadly fungus is spreading in US hospitals. The fungus was first discovered in Japan in 2009 and poses a danger to immunocompromised people, with an estimated mortality rate of 30 to 60 percent, Lo
‘COINCIDENCE’: The former president should keep in mind local and global response to his actions and abide by the law to safeguard national interests, the MAC said The Presidential Office yesterday confirmed that it has received an application from former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to visit China next week and would be discussing his security detail. “As the travel restrictions on former president Ma have expired, we respect his plan to pay respect to his ancestors in China,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪) said. “We will review his travel plan and consult concerned agencies to assist him in arranging his security detail.” “We also hope that Ma, as a former commander in chief of Taiwan, acts in a manner that aligns with national interests and does not hurt
‘DIRE’: Taiwan would not engage in ‘dollar diplomacy,’ the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, after China reportedly offered Honduras up to US$3 billion to establish relations The government yesterday recalled its ambassador to Honduras after the Central American nation sent its foreign minister to China, signaling that it would sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Suspicions concerning ties with Honduras are rife after Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Tuesday last week wrote on Twitter that her country would pursue diplomatic ties with China. Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina traveled to China on Wednesday “to promote efforts for the establishment of diplomatic relations” on instructions from Castro, Reuters yesterday quoted Honduran presidential spokesman Ivis Alvarado as saying. The government “has decided to immediately recall the ambassador to Honduras
‘NOTHING NEW’: China should not use Tsai Ing-wen’s transits through the US as a pretext to step up aggressive activity in the Taiwan Strait, a Washington official said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to stop over in the US on her way to and from Central America next week, but her administration would not confirm a meeting with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Tsai’s delegation is to leave Taipei on Wednesday next week and stop over in New York City, Presidential Office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪) told a news conference yesterday. Tsai is then to head to Guatemala on Saturday next week for talks with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and to meet with Taiwanese expatriates, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. On April 3, Tsai is scheduled to travel
RSS