Taipei police said they are investigating six people in connection with the alleged sale of fake oximeters illegally imported from China.
The suspects allegedly imported the oximeters using forged paperwork, claiming that the devices were pedometers, and then sold more than 7,000 of them to a distributor that resold them to clinics and pharmacies, police said on Wednesday.
An investigator who initiated the case said they were alerted to the situation after reading a report that a member of the public had tested an oximeter purchased from a pharmacy on a doll, and it reportedly gave a reading.
Investigators lead by the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday raided nine sites in Taipei, Taoyuan and Kaohsiung, and confiscated 856 fake oximeters illegally imported from China, the office said.
The office said it was questioning a man surnamed Chang (張) associated with Sanrise Enterprise Co (詔陽公司), three men surnamed Lin (林), Kuo (郭) and Hsu (徐) associated with Commode 2050 Enterprise Co (澄希公司), a man surnamed Yu (余) associated with Z.Y. World Co (宸洋有限公司) and a man surnamed Chen (陳) associated with Bell Bill Co (貝爾比爾公司).
The men allegedly imported the fake oximeters at a cost of 40 yuan (US$6.17) each, and resold them for NT$300 (US$10.68) each to clinics and pharmacies in Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung and Tainan, prosecutor Huang Mu-han (黃睦涵) said.
The pharmacies sold them for NT$800, he said, adding that certified oximeters normally sell for three to four times that price.
Based on an initial estimate, the men would likely face combined charges with fines totaling more than NT$3 million, he said.
The six men were charged with breaching the Medical Devices Act (醫療器材管理法), but as it was deemed unnecessary to detain them, they were released on bail, Huang said.
The office appealed to businesses not to exacerbate the difficulties people are facing amid the COVID-19 pandemic by illegally profiting from medical supplies.
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