The Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office today said it is seeking a 10-year prison sentence for Chiayi County Councilor Tsai Cheng-yi (蔡政宜) in connection to an international money laundering case.
After completing their investigation, prosecutors said they believe that Tsai’s operation laundered NT$22.5 billion (US$717.34 million) in Thai baht since 2010, obtaining illegal profits of about NT$200 million.
Tsai, who is also known as the “Windshield Wiper” (雨刷), allegedly worked with online casino sites and gambling businesses run by crime networks in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Photo: Taipei Times
He has been held incommunicado since September.
Five members of Tsai’s operation have also been indicted, while arrest warrants have been issued for another seven people, including his wife, who is of Chinese nationality.
His wife allegedly ran the operation, while Tsai played a behind-the-scenes role, prosecutors said.
Tsai has a previous conviction for a 2009 baseball fixing scandal, for which he served a three-year, eight-month sentence.
He became a councilor for Chiayi County in 2022.
His company allegedly set up seven locations in Kaohsiung to help gambling Web sites and other criminal enterprises launder money internationally, prosecutors said.
Police and prosecutors searched the seven locations in May and detained several people, two of whom were arrested and later granted bail.
Tsai was arrested on Aug. 31 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport as he attempted to board a flight to Vietnam, after which the court approved his detention.
Further searches were carried out in Chiayi, a luxury apartment in Kaohsiung’s Asia New Bay Area and a town house in the city’s Sanmin District (三民), prosecutors said.
Tsai was charged for contravening five articles of the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法) and Article 3 of the Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪防制條例).
Another member of his operation was released on bail of NT$100,000, prosecutors said.
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