CRIME
Eleven charged with fraud
Eleven people have been indicted on suspicion of breach of trust, fraud and other charges, in weapons system procurement bids hosted by the military’s top research unit, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Three staff members at the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, surnamed Hsieh (謝), Peng (彭) and Pai (白), allegedly colluded with suppliers and downgraded three procurement bids from military grade to industrial or commercial grade to lower the suppliers’ costs at the expense of military security, the office said in a statement. In addition, Hsieh took pictures of some of the classified documents and disclosed them to one of the suppliers before some of the tenders were opened, resulting in unfair competition, it said. They also believe one bid-winning supplier engaged in fraud. Although the company was fully aware that the institute’s contracts forbid China-made products, it still imported goods from China and processed them before handing them over to the institute, earning more than NT$55.46 million (US$1.73 million), it said. Prosecutors raided the institute, suppliers and staff members’ residences from September last year to February, adding that 11 suspects were indicted on Aug. 28 on charges of breach of trust, fraud and leaking information of a confidential nature.
CRIME
School fined for abuse
The High Court on Tuesday ordered a Taipei elementary school to pay NT$1.23 million in compensation to a student and her family in a case where a physical education teacher sexually violated a sixth grader in 2016 and 2017. In the first trial at the Taipei District Court, the school was found liable to pay the victim NT$1 million after the tchoukball coach it employed sexually assaulted the girl multiple times. With the school, the name of which was not revealed, and the family filing appeals over the verdict, the case went to the High Court. According to the verdict released on Tuesday, the family appealed the initial ruling citing psychological trauma inflicted on the student and her parents. The court found the school guilty of failing in its duty of care and ordered it to pay the family NT$1.23 million. For the criminal offense of sexual assaulting a minor, the tchoukball coach was fired and, having been indicted and found guilty, was also sentenced to three years and eight months in jail.
CRIME
Taipei school investigated
Chang Kuang-cheng (張光正), chairman of an elite private elementary school in Taipei, was released on Thursday on bail of NT$1.5 million, one day after he was detained by prosecutors for questioning on suspicion of embezzlement at the school. While Chang has been granted bail, he has been prohibited from leaving the country during the investigation into the alleged misappropriation of about NT$40 million over the past 10 years in the elementary section of Taipei Private Tsai Hsing School, a K-12 institution. Eight staff members at the school, including principal Yang Heng (楊珩), were also questioned on Wednesday by prosecutors, after officials of the Investigation Bureau searched 12 locations. The nine suspects have been accused of siphoning from student fees since 2013 and depositing the money into an account managed by Chang. In addition to the investigation being carried out by law enforcement officers, the Taipei Department of Education has set up a task force to probe the allegations.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
A former member of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), formerly known as SEAL Team 6, said in an interview with Business Insider that the elite unit’s role in a Taiwan Strait conflict would be more limited than some might expect. The report follows an earlier one in September by the Financial Times, which said the “clandestine US Navy commando unit” has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China. “You don’t use a scalpel for a job a hammer can do,” the former Navy Seal said to Business Insider on condition of anonymity.