A diabolo instructor, Lu Chi-hsien (魯紀賢), and four retired military personnel were yesterday detained after a court hearing on suspicion of forming a spy network for China.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, along with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) and New Taipei City police, on Wednesday conducted 25 searches, including six at military units, questioned seven suspects and interviewed 11 witnesses.
The five are suspected of “contacting, enticing and recruiting” military personnel from April last year to obtain military intelligence in contravention of the National Security Act (國家安全法), Taipei Deputy Head Prosecutor Tsai Wei-yi (蔡偉逸) said.
Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei Times
Investigations showed that after retiring from the army, Lu was recruited by Chinese intelligence officers, who offered him money to use his connection and friends still in active service to obtain classified materials and recruit others to form a spy network, Tsai said, adding that his unusual activities drew the attention of the MJIB’s National Security Operation Division.
This case shows that Chinese espionage has found a new way of infiltrating Taiwan and recruiting new members, with Lu focusing on pawnshops, money lenders and loan-shark operations near army bases, where he could find soldiers or officers who needed money or were having problems paying debts, Tsai said.
With the help of old friends and other officers, Lu was able to hook up with potential targets, offering them money to pay off debts or loans, he said.
Lu was able to entice more than 10 lower-ranked military personnel into working for the espionage ring, instructing them to gather classified documents at their service units or any confidential information they could access and handing them over to Lu, who then passed it on to his Chinese handlers, Tsai said.
After a bail hearing, Lu and four other retired military personnel — two men surnamed Lee (李) and Chang (常), and two women surnamed Lin (林) — were listed as suspects and denied bail.
Another suspect, Kuo Po-ting (郭伯廷), was released on NT$200,000 bail, with media reports identifying him as the younger brother of singer and actress Kuo Shu-yao (郭書瑤).
With the revelation of another spy ring operating in Taiwan drawing criticism, the Ministry of National Defense yesterday released a statement saying that “military personnel have helped the investigation with their tip-offs, and we are currently cooperating with national security agencies in the probe.”
It added that it cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.
Taipei prosecutors said that Lu, a well-known diabolo instructor, had served on the board of the Republic of China Diabolo Federation.
However, Lu used his position at the federation to engage in several fraud schemes, including deceiving investors and companies that Taiwan was to host the “2021 Diabolo World Cup,” and collecting NT$13.18 million (US$424,108) in funds, they said.
Convicted on four charges of fraud, Lu was in March sentenced to five years and four months in prison.
However, he did not show up on the day he was to start his term and was placed on the wanted list until his arrest on Wednesday, they said.
Additional reporting by Chien Li-chung and Kayleigh Madjar
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
RSS