Banciao District prosecutors yesterday questioned former Brother Elephants pitcher Chuang Yu-lin (莊侑霖), saying that he plays a key role in the investigation into the professional baseball league game-fixing case.
Chuang allegedly bribed and threatened players to perform in such a way that their team would win or lose a game by a specific margin.
Aside from his alleged involvement in the game-fixing case, it has also been rumored that Chuang, under suspicion of being involved in gambling, drug dealing and other misdemeanors, may offer prosecutors evidence that would further incriminate the other players under investigation.
PHOTO: CNA
Banciao District prosecutors said a previous search of Chuang’s residence in Sanchong (三重) produced 20,000 MDMA pills (known as “head-shaking pills” in Chinese, “ecstasy” in English), NT$700,000 in cash and four mobile phones. Prosecutors suspect the cash was funds left over after buying the drugs.
Prosecutors said their questioning was mainly to clarify whether Chuang, using his connections in the country’s professional baseball league teams, acted as an agent for Tsai Cheng-yi (蔡政宜), the alleged head of the “Windshield Wipers” gang.
Prosecutors believe Tsai enticed players to throw games or manipulate the final score in ways to help a bookies syndicate cash in on illicit bets.
Evidence collected by the Taipei branch of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau showed that the players rigged games in a number of ways, including throwing easy pitches for the batters to hit, walking batters, purposely committing errors or deliberately striking out. Once the gambling syndicate run by Tsai cashed in on its bets as a result of the players’ actions, it would then pay off the players through intermediaries, the Investigation Bureau believes.
Tsai and three of his associates were questioned and detained last Tuesday. Former professional baseball league players Chuang Yu-lin (莊侑霖) and Huang Chun-chung (黃俊中) were also questioned and detained on suspicion of acting as middlemen between the gambling ring and the players.
More baseball players and others who are suspected of being involved in the game-fixing ring may be brought in for questioning as prosecutors verify whether different statements corroborated each other, prosecutors said.
If any baseball players are suspected of taking prohibited drugs, prosecutors say they would take urine or hair samples to test for drugs. Prosecutors, however, say they have so far not found any physical evidence that baseball players have been taking prohibited drugs.
This is the fifth time in 20 years that professional baseball players from Taiwan have been investigated for throwing games.
Prosecutors launched their investigation a day after the Elephants lost 5-2 to the Uni-President Lions on Oct. 25 in the Chinese Professional Baseball League Taiwan Series championship decider.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
Also See: EDITORIAL : No more trials by media
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents