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.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS