The Taoyuan District Court on Wednesday approved the release of the heads of the Taiwan Civil Government (TCG, 台灣民政府) group, after they were detained for five months pending judicial proceedings.
The group’s secretary-general, Roger Lin (林志昇), posted bail of NT$10 million (US324,760), and his wife, Julian Lin (林梓安), posted bail of NT$7 million.
Taoyuan District Court officials said Roger Lin applied for release because of medical conditions he has and because his wife needs to look after her two children.
Yu Hsiang-ching (游象敬), a TCG executive, was also released on a NT$3 million bail.
The court imposed restrictions against them, prohibiting them from traveling abroad. They are also required to report to their local police station every day at 8pm.
Taoyuan prosecutors in July charged Roger and Julian Lin, and four other TCG executives with fraud, money laundering and related offenses, saying they had been operating a “political Ponzi scheme,” with evidence showing they had made illegal profits of more than NT$1 billion.
Searches at the Lin’s residence uncovered NT$130 million in cash, as well as deposits of NT$6 million and US$520,000 in seven bank accounts, and the ownership deeds for five properties.
Addressing his supporters after being released, Roger Lin, 67, said that the US government had applied pressure to have him released.
According to transcripts from his court hearing last month, Roger Lin said that his organization and the “Citizen ID” cards it issues are recognized as legitimate by US authorities, and that TCG officials are in constant touch with high-level US government officials.
Roger Lin said that after World War II, Taiwan’s sovereignty and political status were left unresolved, and that the US Military Government still has legitimate claim over Taiwan and is planning to take over and rule the nation.
He said that TCG is the nation’s only recognized governing authority.
In court on Sept. 13, he said that TCG is advocating for US Marines to take over Taiwan, and that US President Donald Trump is now in charge of the plan.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS