Fifteen people were detained after an operation targeting a transnational sports gambling ring that allegedly catered to Chinese betting on European soccer matches, police said on Monday.
On Saturday last week, officers used tools to pry open metal doors at an office building in Tainan to gain entry and detained the people inside, who were allegedly involved in a gambling ring headed by a man surnamed Ting (丁), police said.
Officers seized digital devices and telecommunications equipment, including 40 desktop and notebook computers, 103 mobile phones, accounting books and other material, they said.
Investigators said that the operation was linked to the Tao Gin Net sports gambling Web site, which accepted bets on professional soccer games, including spread bets, and only dealt with Chinese clients.
The phones were connected to numbers in China, they said.
An examination of transactions made through the Web site and data taken from the computers showed that the operation focused on matches in the “Big Five” leagues of European soccer — the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A and Ligue 1 in France.
China is a big market for soccer, with games from the “Big Five” and other top divisions in Europe broadcast on Chinese TV.
The material and other evidence indicated that the operation had more than 2,000 members in China who had signed up to wire money via Chinese online payment systems, investigators said, adding that betting and payment amounts were all denominated in Chinese yuan.
Ting told investigators that he was previously based in Manila, where he operated an online sports betting site, but returned to Taiwan in September last year due to declining business amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they said.
In Taiwan, Ting linked up with a businessman who was seeking an experienced manager to run a similar operation targeting the Chinese market for betting on European soccer, they said.
Investigators said that the site had turnover of 50.24 million yuan (US$7.68 million) in four months of operation.
Ting and the other 14 people who were detained would likely face illegal gambling and other charges, police said.
An investigation to determine whether Ting’s operation was connected to organized crime syndicates is ongoing, police said.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TAIWAN ADVOCATES: The resolution, which called for the recognition of Taiwan as a country and normalized relations, was supported by 22 Republican representatives Two US representatives on Thursday reintroduced a resolution calling for the US to end its “one China” policy, resume formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and negotiate a bilateral Taiwan-US free trade agreement. Republican US representatives Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania’s 10th District were backed by 22 Republican members of the US House of Representatives. The two congressmen first introduced the resolution together in 2021. The resolution called on US President Donald Trump to “abandon the antiquated ‘one China’ policy in favor of a policy that recognizes the objective reality that Taiwan is an independent country, not
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)