Two leaders of a job scam operation linked to kidnappings and the deaths of three people were sentenced to life in prison, the Shilin District Court said yesterday.
The Taipei court handed life sentences to Fu Yu-lin (傅榆藺) and Chen Hua-wei (陳樺韋), who headed the operation, while 27 others received prison sentences ranging from 14 months to 29-and-a-half years.
The 11-month joint trial of the 29 suspects resulted in Fu and Chen being found guilty of more than 300 counts each, among them kidnapping resulting in death, fraud, armed robbery, forced drug abuse, organized crime and improper disposal of a body.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Police Department
Tu Cheng-che (杜承哲), a third leader of the crime ring who allegedly gave orders to Fu and Chen, was captured in April after fleeing authorities and is being tried separately.
Fu, Chen and others in September last year began asking people who rented residences in Taoyuan’s Jhongli (中壢) or New Taipei City’s Tamsui (淡水) districts to attend interviews for high-paying jobs, prosecutors said.
Others responded to online offers to “rent out” inactive bank accounts for large sums of money, they said.
People who responded to the ads for either offer were held against their will by members of the operation, who took their bankbooks, account passwords and IDs, they said.
They were held at two locations for periods ranging from a few days to more than a month, prosecutors said.
The stolen bank accounts were used to commit fraud and launder money as part of a broader scheme that took in about NT$390 million (US$12.34 million) in illicit gains from more than 250 people, they said.
People who were held captive told prosecutors that they were often fed only one meal a day, forced to take sleeping pills, and were beaten, tasered or pepper-sprayed if they talked or did not follow orders.
Police in November last year found 35 people being held in an apartment in Taoyuan and 26 in a Tamsui residence.
The operation resulted in the deaths of three captives, with two bodies discovered in Taoyuan’s Gueishan District (龜山) and one in Nantou County, the court said.
The body found in Nantou was that of a 38-year-old man who fell to his death from the 11th floor after crawling out of a bathroom window in an attempt to escape on Oct. 17 last year, authorities said.
The two others, a 45-year-old woman and a 57-year-old man, both had chronic medical conditions and died after being held for 32 days and 16 days respectively, they said.
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
‘FALLACY’: Xi’s assertions that Taiwan was given to the PRC after WWII confused right and wrong, and were contrary to the facts, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday called Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) claim that China historically has sovereignty over Taiwan “deceptive” and “contrary to the facts.” In an article published on Wednesday in the Russian state-run Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Xi said that this year not only marks 80 years since the end of World War II and the founding of the UN, but also “Taiwan’s restoration to China.” “A series of instruments with legal effect under international law, including the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Declaration have affirmed China’s sovereignty over Taiwan,” Xi wrote. “The historical and legal fact” of these documents, as well
RSS