The Taipei Police Department is facing serious questions and allegations by government officials and the public after two police officers were convicted on corruption charges yesterday, as more bribery cases came under investigation.
The Taipei District Court yesterday found police officers Yen Hua-yu (嚴華郁) and Chiang Jen-tso (江仁佐) guilty of taking bribes to protect underground gambling dens and sentenced both to 15 years in prison and deprivation of their civil rights for five years.
The decision can be appealed.
The case stems from a crackdown in March 2015, when investigators found that Yen and Chiang had taken NT$750,000 in bribes from Lin Shih-chieh (林士傑) and two other operators of underground gambling dens.
Investigators said that Yen and Chiang were stationed in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), where a number of illegal gambling parlors are located in private homes.
A man surnamed Chuang (莊) acted as an intermediary, passing messages and cigarette cartons stuffed with cash between the parties, investigators said, adding that the officers were paid NT$10,000 each for each day that the dens were operated.
Chuang and the suspected gambling den operators all pleaded not guilty, and the two police officers denied accepting bribes, saying they had received loans that had to be paid back.
However, the court found the parties guilty of bribing officials, running illegal gambling businesses and other charges.
In a separate corruption case this week, the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office questioned five police officers from Wanhua District on allegations of taking bribes from businesses in exchange for protection from police searches.
Prosecutors said that two of the officers under investigation were senior-ranking police inspectors.
A probe was launched after prosecutors were tipped off that an officer surnamed Yang (楊) had received NT$300,000 in bribes from illegal businesses, they said, adding that the officer’s colleagues were discovered to have also benefited.
Investigators found that some of the officers had also illegally sold people’s names, phone numbers, addresses and other private information to unscrupulous businesses, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors earlier this week in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau raided 25 locations and on Tuesday took in 19 people for questioning, including the five suspected officers, they said.
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