Kinmen County prosecutors yesterday indicted a senior Coast Guard Administration (CGA) officer for allegedly taking bribes from Chinese smugglers and leaking confidential information to Chinese officials.
Prosecutors requested a nine-year, six-month jail sentence and a NT$6 million (US$197,044) fine for Chuang Tsung-hui (莊宗輝), the head of the Duty Command Center of the CGA Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch.
Authorities in May launched an investigation into a potential national security case, searching Chuang’s home and CGA offices.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
“Taking advantage of his position, the suspect gained access to highly sensitive information, including data from radar installations, records of marine vessel activities, the Kinmen region’s CGA on-duty roster, patrol fleet schedules, and inspection reports on vessels entering and disembarking from harbors,” lead prosecutor on the case Lin Po-wen (林伯文) said.
He also had access to files kept by judicial authorities on cases of smuggling, illegal encroachment and other criminal actions involving foreign vessels in the Kinmen area, Lin said.
Chuang allegedly passed on documents and information to smuggling rings based in Taiwan and China in exchange for money, prosecutors said.
He also allegedly cooperated with Chinese officials to obtain classified national security material in exchange for money, the indictment said.
From 2017 to May, Chuang was allegedly involved in five incidents in which he received bribes to contravene his official duties and five incidents of passing on to Chinese nationals confidential material that compromised national security, including three counts of leaking CGA personnel files, Lin said.
According to the indictment, he received about NT$1.88 million in bribes from Chinese officials, while Chinese and Taiwanese smuggling operators had paid him different amounts at different times as high as NT$600,000 for his cooperation.
Chuang has been indicted on charges related to the National Security Act (國家安全法), the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) and the Criminal Code, Lin added.
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