Two brothers who allegedly operated a large online forum for sharing secretly recorded sex videos were indicted on charges related to child pornography and blackmail, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) told a news conference in Taipei on Thursday.
The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office launched a probe after receiving information about a Telegram channel that allegedly distributed child pornography and then targeted its members for extortion, First Telecommunications Investigation Corps Commander Wu Suu-han (吳思翰) said.
Prosecutor Chen Hsiang-wei (陳祥薇) directed a team of investigators comprising bureau and Taichung Police Department personnel, Wu said.
Photo: CNA
Investigators identified a 31-year-old man surnamed Hsu (許) — who has a previous conviction for child exploitation — and his 29-year-old brother as the alleged administrators of a pornography forum called Chuangyi Sifang (創意私房), Wu said.
The forum has a subscription system in which members can download surreptitiously filmed sex videos bearing the site’s watermark, he said.
The brothers in May created a Telegram channel that provided free pornographic videos for download, including material from a commercial site, with some showing child sexual abuse, Wu said.
The channel’s followers would then be extorted via threats that their personal information would be released to the public, or that they were being sued for infringing copyrights for sharing the videos, he said.
Eleven men between 20 and 30 years of age were targeted in the blackmail scheme and collectively lost about NT$320,000 to the Hsu brothers, Wu said.
Law enforcement officials arrested the brothers and three alleged accomplices over the past three months and charged them with extortion, sexually exploiting minors and participating in organized crime, he said.
The elder Hsu was remanded in custody and the inquiry is being broadened to determine whether the group was involved in other crimes, Wu said.
Possession or distribution of child pornography contravenes the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例), which carries a minimum sentence of seven years in prison.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
NO RIGHT: After 38 years of martial law under the former KMT government, the KMT is the least qualified to accuse others of harboring such intentions, DPP officials said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of creating a stir on social media by implying that the government supports martial law, adding that the KMT is the least qualified to criticize others after decades of martial law in Taiwan under the former KMT regime. After South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol late on Tuesday night declared martial law (which was rescinded six hours later), the DPP caucus issued a statement on Thread saying that Taiwan’s legislature was facing a situation similar to that in South Korea, which had prompted Yoon to declare martial law. “The South
Singapore is to allow imports of Taiwanese raw pork for the first time in 15 years, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The Singapore Food Agency has approved imports of fresh pork produced by New Taipei City-based Cha I Shan Foods, which had obtained a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification from the ministry to export to Singapore, it said. The ministry said it had hoped Singapore would permit Taiwanese fresh pork imports in addition to processed pork products. Singapore agreed to accept Taiwanese fresh pork after completing a document review and a virtual tour of Cha I Shan Foods’ packing
‘FACT-BASED’: There is no ban, and 2 million Taiwanese have traveled to China this year, which is more than the 285,000 Chinese who visited Taiwan, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday accused China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of shifting the blame for Beijing’s tourism ban on Taiwan, continuing a war of words that started in the past week. The council’s remark came hours after its Chinese counterpart on Friday accused the government of creating barriers to the resumption of reciprocal group tours across the Taiwan Strait. The TAO accused the MAC of releasing untruthful information and dragging its feet on the tourism sector’s call to establishing ferries linking Pingtung County to China’s Pingtan Island. The MAC failed to respond to overtures to restore direct flights and raised the
RSS