A soccer betting and fraud ring busted by Malaysian police grossed more than US$1 billion, reports said yesterday, after an operation that led to the arrests of scores of Chinese and Taiwanese nationals.
Police conducted the raid in the city of Kajang, near Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Thursday after receiving a tip-off, the latest high-profile effort to clamp down on rampant illegal sports betting in Asia.
The Malaysia ring operated for a month from several luxury bungalows in an upscale gated community “home to several ministers and former cabinet members,” the Star newspaper reported.
Photo: AFP
Police believe the operation grossed nearly 4 billion ringgit (US$1.3 billion), it said.
The bungalows had closed-circuit video systems for security and police found “suspects engrossed in their laptops and telephones in a classroom-like atmosphere with all the tables neatly arranged in rows,” the report added.
Suspects were equipped with 241 mobile phones and 43 computers, the New Straits Times said.
Kajang police chief Abdul Rashid Abdul Wahab said on Thursday the group took bets on English Premier League soccer games and organized other forms of online gambling.
Soccer, particularly the English game, is hugely popular in Malaysia, but sports betting is illegal and those found guilty can be jailed.
Abdul Rashid said the group also carried out Internet scams that sought to obtain the credit card numbers of people in Taiwan, China and Portugal.
The Star said members had detailed scripts to follow in dealing with victims.
Abdul Rashid said 132 Chinese and Taiwanese nationals, along with five Malaysians, were arrested, but the Star quoted police sources saying 144 people were netted, including 54 women.
Reports quoted police as saying the foreign suspects, mostly in their 20s, had arrived in Malaysia early last month.
Neither the police nor the press reports have indicated who was behind the operation.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS