Wed, Jun 10, 2020 page3

• Authorities bust exam cheating ring

  ‘FULL SERVICE’: A person who allegedly used the ring’s services to land a job at China Steel was fired within a year because he knew ‘literally nothing,’ prosecutors said

  • By Huang Chia-lin and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday cracked down on an examination fraud ring that allegedly charged people to assign proxies to sit exams for positions at state-owned corporations, reportedly generating more than NT$50 million (US$1.68 million) in illicit gains.

  The group has over the past two years helped 12 people enter state-run corporations — such as CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC) and Taiwan Power Co — as well as police academies by sending proxies to take the exams on their behalf, the office said in a news release.

  The office conducted the investigation with the Agency Against Corruption under the Ministry of Justice.

  Huang Yao-chin (黃耀進), 43, the alleged leader of the ring and a CPC employee, charged fees ranging from NT$900,000 to NT$1.3 million per client, the office said, adding that proxies included students from National Tsing Hua University and National Chiao Tung University, medical interns and junior-high school science teachers.

  To deceive exam administrators, Huang and the other suspects digitally combined the photographs of clients with those of proxies, and had the clients use the edited photographs to apply for new National Health Insurance cards, which were used as an identification documents at the exams, it said.

  The ring charged clients an upfront payment of about NT$100,000 to NT$450,000 before the exams, of which NT$20,000 to NT$100,000 went to a proxy, the office said, adding that clients paid the remainder once the proxy passed the exam.

  To increase its gains, the ring moved from only helping people take written exams to providing “full services,” which included taking care of subsequent interviews or fitness tests for clients, as some of them failed to demonstrate professionalism in the fields, the office said.

  The office and the agency said they launched the investigation after receiving a report from a person following CPC’s written exam in January.

  The source said that a friend of theirs who had never studied for the test passed it after bragging that “my father took care of the exam for me,” officials said.

  The suspects were caught in the act on the day of CPC’s second-round exam, the office said.

  A client who had failed the CPC exam for several years said that he commissioned a proxy out of pressure after his girlfriend threatened to break up with him if he failed once more, it said.

  Some parents even raised money from friends and family to secure a position for their child at a state-run corporation, the office added.

  One client was fired from China Steel Corp in less than one year after starting work, as his manager had found that “he knew literally nothing” about the job, the office said.

  The ring helped 10 people pass CPC’s written exam last year, it said, adding that seven clients did not get into any state-run corporations.

  However, due to damaged data on Huang’s computer, the identities of 39 other clients could not be determined, while another NT$30 million in gains could not be deemed illicit, as its source was known, it said.

  Huang and the five main proxies were indicted on charges of fraud and forgery of documents, while 46 clients, family of clients and other proxies received a suspended indictment, the office said.
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