Taipei prosecutors yesterday indicted former and current top executives of Taiwan’s governing bodies for baseball, tennis, badminton and swimming over alleged forgery and misuse of personal information, amid accusations that they manipulated membership lists to rig board elections.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office listed the accused as former Chinese Taipei Baseball Association chairman Chen Tai-cheng (陳太正); Chinese Taipei Tennis Association secretary-general Liu Chung-hsing (劉中興); Liu’s deputy at the tennis body, Chao An-hua (趙安華); Chinese Taipei Badminton Association secretary-general Lee Yu-long (李侑龍); and former Chinese Taipei Swimming Association chairman Hsu Tung-hsiung (許東雄).
New Power Party Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said that the indictments were a positive development, but added: “I am not happy, because they have ruined Taiwanese sports reforms over the past few years and have still not received their punishment.”
Huang has been an outspoken critic of the Sports Administration. He and other legislators of the pan-green camp, as well as members of the group Fair Game, Taiwan, have led campaigns for reform, saying that the nation’s sports governing bodies remain dominated by people associated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) who have profited from sports, while stifling progress and trampling on athletes’ rights.
“These executives have been indicted, so why is the Sports Administration still sleeping?” he asked.
Over the past two years, in his campaign against the agency for alleged fraud, he has presented evidence and requested a thorough judicial investigation.
“I asked the courts to hold a fair hearing and examine the evidence, which would result in these executives being found guilty and likely receiving heavy punishment,” Huang said. “The Sports Administration must take responsibility and dismiss these executives.”
“I also requested that prosecutors investigate the Chinese Taipei Swimming Association after I presented evidence of officials pocketing government funds, but I saw no movement on the case for more than a year,” he added.
In addition to the forgery charges, the five executives have been charged with contravening the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法) for allegedly using fraudulent means to gather the personal information of 3,000 to 5,000 people, which were then used to influence the nomination and election of top positions at the sports bodies as means of keeping the entrenched clique in power.
Last year, when athletes and reform advocates found out what had happened, they went public with their findings, sparking a public furor against the organizations.
Government officials at the time promised reforms and launched a judicial investigation.
However, a decision by prosecutors in August last year to not pursue the cases led to more public anger.
Prosecutors deferred indictment of the five executives and imposed fines of between NT$300,000 and NT$750,000, saying that they had exhibited a good attitude by admitting their wrongdoing and did not have criminal records.
After a review by the High Prosecutors’ Office, the case was returned to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
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