The Banciao District Court yesterday sentenced former baseball star Chen Chih-yuan (陳致遠) to a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for game-fixing.
The court also sentenced former baseball player Tsai Fong-an (蔡豐安) to one year and fined him NT$2 million (US$69,500) for the same offense. Former player Yang Po-jen (楊博任) was sentenced to two years and fined NT$1 million. The three were found guilty of harming the image of the professional league, having an unrepentant attitude after committing a crime and wasting judicial resources.
Their case can be appealed.
Photo: Wang Ting-chuang, Taipei Times
The game-fixing case erupted after the 20th championship game in Oct. 2009, involving star players such as Chen, Chang Chih-chia (張誌家), Tsao Chin-hui (曹錦輝) and Liao Yu-cheng (廖于誠) among others.
Last year, the district court indicted Chen, Chang and Tsai on charges of fraud, but Tsao and Hsieh Chia-hsien (謝佳賢) were not indicted because of a lack of evidence.
During the trial in April, the prosecution accused Chen and Tsai, both well paid and trained using state resources, of not only failing to avoid involvement in the scandal but also of denying their criminal activities and misleading the public.
The court said it decided to increase the sentences’ severity because of Chen and Tsai’s unrepentant attitude.
According to the court ruling, Chuang Yu-lin (莊侑霖) gave testimony that after a game on March 25, 2006, Chen and Tsai took a ride in Yu Tse-bin’s (余則彬) car, where Chuang gave Chen a shoebox containing NT$1 million in cash.
Yu was an alleged member of the Windshield Wipers gang, an syndicate accused of placing bets on professional baseball games and recruiting players to manipulate the outcome of those games.
Yesterday’s ruling said that Chen received cash payment days after he had fixed a game.
However, the district court did not have strong enough evidence regarding accusations that Chen also received sexual favors.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the meeting next month, Japanese sources said The holding of a Japan-US leaders’ meeting ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China is positive news for Taiwan, former Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association representative Hiroyasu Izumi said yesterday. After the Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory in Japan’s House of Representatives election, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is scheduled to visit the US next month, where she is to meet with Trump ahead of the US president’s planned visit to China from March 31 to April 2 for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the
‘LIKE-MINDED PARTNER’: Tako van Popta said it would be inappropriate to delay signing the deal with Taiwan because of China, adding he would promote the issue Canadian senators have stressed Taiwan’s importance for international trade and expressed enthusiasm for ensuring the Taiwan-Canada trade cooperation framework agreement is implemented this year. Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) said he was increasingly uneasy about Ottawa’s delays in signing the agreement, especially as Ottawa has warmed toward Beijing. There are “no negotiations left. Not only [is it] initialed, we have three versions of the text ready: English, French and Mandarin,” Tseng said. “That tells you how close we are to the final signature.” Tseng said that he hoped Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday bestowed one of Taiwan’s highest honors on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Ambassador Andrea Clare Bowman in recognition of her contributions to bilateral ties. “By conferring the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon on Ambassador Bowman today, I want to sincerely thank her, on behalf of the Taiwanese people, for her outstanding contribution to deepening diplomatic ties between Taiwan and SVG,” Lai said at a ceremony held at the Presidential Office in Taipei. He noted that Bowman became SVG’s first ambassador to Taiwan in 2019 and
A man walks past elementary school artworks at the Taipei Lantern Festival in Ximen District yesterday, the first day of the event. The festival is to run from 5pm to 10pm through March 15.
RSS