Two Chinese have been indicted for their alleged involvement in illegal money transfers between Taiwan and China, Kaohsiung prosecutors said on Thursday.
A man surnamed Zheng (鄭) and a woman surnamed Ong (翁) were indicited under the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Banking Act (銀行法), prosecutors said.
Zheng, 52, and Ong, 47, allegedly conducted unregistered banking activities, remitting about NT$20 million (US$686,860) in the past year, prosecutors said.
Investigators arrested Zheng and Ong at a supermarket in Kaohsiung’s Nanzih District (楠梓) last year.
The national security charges are because the two allegedly assisted a Hong Kong-based investment firm, and colluded with a Kaohsiung-based marine service operator to deceive border control authorities and enter Taiwan illegally, the indictment said.
The transfers were likely to launder the money, it said.
Zheng’s first arrival in Taiwan was in 2019 by legal means, with his entry documents showing that he had been hired by the Hong Kong investment firm to manage its marine shipping business based at Kaohsiung Port, the indictment said.
Zheng applied for and received a short-term visa for business purposes, which was valid for a month and could not be extended, it said.
Zheng allegedly paid a local marine services firm to help him get documentation, which he presented to the National Immigration Agency, prosecutors said.
Border control officials at Kaohsiung Port registered his departure by motor boat, which was purportedly to take him to a ship destined for China, prosecutors said.
However, following his departure from the No. 4 pier, the motor boat simply made a big circle and returned to the same port with Zheng still aboard, they said, adding that personnel from the marine services firm took him into the city.
He conducted unregistered banking operations with Ong, earning commission on remittances across the Taiwan Strait, the indictment said.
Evidence showed that businesspeople based in China were involved, including a man surnamed Hsieh (謝), who allegedly headed a Taiwanese business association in China’s Guangdong Province, and other Chinese seeking to transfer funds or launder money, it said.
Background checks showed that Ong had obtained residency in Taiwan through marriage, it said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,