The Shilin District Court in Taipei yesterday handed guilty verdicts to 15 people, including 10 former athletes, for game-fixing and gambling in semi-professional Super Basketball League (SBL) games.
Ten Yulon Luxgen Dinos players conspired to fix the scores in six matches between February and April 2023, the court said.
Eight of the defendants were found guilty of gambling, while one was found guilty of providing a platform for gambling with the intention of making a profit between December 2022 and April 2023, it said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
The court determined that former player Ko Min-hao (柯旻豪) was at the core of the criminal activities and handed him a seven-year sentence.
Players Wu Chi-ying (吳季穎), Chiu Chung-po (邱忠博), Chen Pin-chuan (陳品銓), Huang Hsuan-min (黃鉉閔), Wu Yu-jen (吳祐任), Chou Wei-chen (周暐宸), Yen Wen-tso (顏聞佐), Lee Chi-en (李其恩) and Sengalese national Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Sarr received sentences ranging from one year and eight months to five years and two months.
Former Yulon Luxgen Dinos assistant coach Chiu Chi-wei (邱繼緯), an underground betting bookie and four acquaintances of Wu Chi-ying who helped him to place bets on the gambling Web site were given sentences ranging from eight months to two years.
The rulings can be appealed.
Ko took advantage of his position and influence as a veteran on the team and recruited younger players for the scheme, the court said.
The other players complied, hindering fair play and corrupting Taiwan’s professional basketball development, the court added.
As Wu Chi-ying confessed, and provided important evidence and statements, the court handed him a lenient sentence of two years, which can be deferred for five years, it said.
The bookie and Wu Chi-ying’s four acquaintances also confessed, the court said, adding that they received suspended sentences.
Bamba Sarr was ruled unfit to remain in Taiwan following his prison sentence and would be deported after serving his contract, it said.
The court added that it would report Chou for perjury, as his signed statement during the investigation diverged greatly from his testimony in the trial.
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