An international scam in which proprietors allegedly organized tour packages for Taiwanese women to give birth in the US before helping their clients defraud the government and insurance companies out of tens of millions of New Taiwan dollars is being investigated, law enforcement officials said yesterday.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau said it has questioned three suspects and received testimonies and depositions from 34 women who allegedly participated in the scam.
It is estimated that the proprietors and participants in the scheme have made more than NT$30 million (US$916,702) over the past few years, with each Taiwanese woman receiving a NT$400,000 to NT$1.5 million insurance payout after filing fraudulent claims with the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) and other private insurance companies, bureau spokesman Chang Yue-han (張躍翰) said.
In the past two years there have been about 1,000 Taiwanese women who have claimed a payment from the NHIA for a childbirth in a foreign country, Chang said, adding that about 80 percent of those claimants gave birth in the US.
At least 180 of those women have come under investigation, Chang said, adding that they bought health insurance policies from various providers before heading to the US to give birth.
He said that women who have been investigated allegedly filed insurance claims with the NHIA and other private insurance companies to cover expenses incurred for caesarean section deliveries and placenta previa — a condition in which the placenta partially or wholly blocks the neck of the uterus during childbirth.
CIB officials said they are seeking to bring charges for fraud, forgery and other offenses.
The three women who were detained for questioning yesterday — Liu Chao-hsun (柳昭薰), operator of “Liuliu Service,” Yen Yu-chen (顏玉貞), proprietor of “Chiao Mommy,” and Liang Shu-jung (梁淑嫆), a former insurance agent who allegedly helped participants file for claims — are the suspected masterminds of the operation.
Liu and Yen operated their businesses online, selling “medical tour packages” to the US.
Investigators said Liu and Yen allegedly offered their packages — priced at between NT$400,000 and NT$1 million — with collaborating Chinese or Taiwanese obstetricians and doctors working in US hospitals and private clinics.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry