Vice Minister of Justice Hsieh Wen-ting (
After viewing video tapes taken by police of the dinner held by the Four Seas Gang (
According to the Taipei Police Headquarters, the Four Seas Gang held a two-hour dinner party as the inauguration for its four new division chiefs at a restaurant in Taipei City on July 18.
A senior officer from the Ta-an precinct said a prosecutor from one of Taipei's three prosecutors' offices had been spotted at the dinner.
To investigate the allegation, Hsieh invited several high-ranking prosecutors from the Taiwan High Court and the district prosecutors' offices in Taipei, Panchiao and Shihlin to watch the tapes provided by the city police's Criminal Investigation Corps.
"The Criminal Investigation Sections of the Peitou Precinct and the Ta-an Precinct sent officers to the restaurant to take pictures and shoot video tapes.
These are the results," Hsieh, clutching the two video tapes, said at a press conference yesterday.
"I'm sorry that I cannot play the tapes in public but I firmly assure you that there were no prosecutors at the dinner. The story was not true," he said.
Hsieh said that he had no idea where the "rumor" came from after watching the tapes for nearly four hours with the other prosecutors.
"We'll definitely punish the prosecutor if the man does exist," he said. "If this is true, it would damage the credibility and the image of the justice system, and we cannot let that happen. However, it's not."
A senior police officer from the Ta-an Precinct who had confirmed the "rumor" with the Taipei Times on Sunday was yesterday reluctant to speak against the vice justice minister.
"Maybe there's some misunderstanding. Maybe we recognized the wrong person. But it's not a proper time for me to speak on behalf of the police," the officer said.
The police said that nearly 350 guests attended the dinner party and most of them were other local gang members and businessmen, according to the police.
The police did not say whether police officers or military officers attended the dinner.
Established in May, 1955, the Four Seas Gang operates mainly in Taipei City's Shihlin and Peitou Districts.
As well as the traditional gangster businesses of blackmail and gambling, the gang also makes money from its restaurants, nightclubs and construction companies.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the