A Yunlin prosecutor yesterday said he would indict 16 professional baseball players, bookies and gangsters for their involvement in a multi-million dollar baseball game-fixing scandal.
The head of the prosecutor's office said later yesterday, however, that more time was needed to review the case.
Yunlin prosecutor Hsu Wei-yu (徐維嶽) said that he had finished his investigation and prepared charges against 16 defendants that includes five Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) players, nine gangsters involved in bookmaking, one team coach and one team translator on charges of blackmail, fraud and breach of trust.
However, the head of the prosecutors' office Ho Ming-chen (
Ho denied there was any disagreement between himself and Hsu over the case. He said that game-fixing investigations had in the past been difficult to prove in court because it is extremely hard to judge whether a player has been playing badly on purpose. Because of this he needed more time to review the evidence to see if it was sufficient to indict.
Hsu later said he had no comment on Ho's statement.
Hsu said the two key men in the scandal, Macoto Cobras second-division coach Tsai Sheng-fong (蔡生豐) and La New Bears catcher Chen Chao-ying (陳昭穎), were released on Sunday after spending a month in detention after plea-bargaining with prosecutors.
Hsu said the two confessed their involvement in game-fixing and offered more evidence and named more players who allegedly were also involved.
As a result prosecutors have recommended a lighter sentence for the two informants.
Hsu said according to Tsai and Chen's statements, prosecutors would launch a second round of investigations.
Hsu said Lee Chuan-lin (
Hsu also said that Lee had made threats to members of each of the six teams in the CPBL, demanding their cooperation as well as arranging for players to wine and dine in private clubs.
Hsu said pitchers, such as La New Bears starter Tai Long-shui (
Hsu added Chen Chao-ying confessed that he accepted a bribe of up to NT$600,000 on July 14 to instruct the pitcher pairing with him to pitch poorly.
The investigation is a huge blow for the CPBL, which suffered a similar scandal in 1998. Gangsters and gamblers had infiltrated the sport, and the China Times Eagles was disbanded after players were convicted of gambling offenses.
The following year, 18 players, one manager and two bookmakers were convicted and jailed in the case.
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A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
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