The legislature on Friday passed amendments to the Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪防制條例) to include fraud syndicates, lawmakers said.
The act now defines a “criminal organization” as a group of three or more people using “coercion, fraud or blackmail to commit crimes with the characteristics of continuity and profitability, which is punishable by a maximum of five years in jail.”
Organized criminal groups were defined as “collective” in nature, but groups do not necessarily have to be “properly named or have codes and ceremonies, unchanged residences, habitual participation of members or clear division of labor,” as defined by the act prior to the amendment.
According to the Executive Yuan, since the law was promulgated in 1996 no major amendments have been made to it despite “the rise of a new type of organized criminal group that are more disguised, indirect and multi-layered.”
Indicted instigators, principals, controllers or commanders of a criminal organization can be sentenced to between three and 10 years in jail and a fine of no less than NT$100 million (US$3.3 million), and participants can be sentenced to between six months and five years in jail and a fine of no less than NT$10 million.
Those who recruit people to join organized criminal groups can be sentenced to between six months and five years in jail and a fine of up to NT$10 million, while adults recruiting those under 18 years old can be sentenced to up to one-and-a-half times the penalties for recruitment.
People recruiting by using threats, violence or other forms of coercion could be sentenced to between one and seven years in jail and a maximum fine of NT$20 million, according to the amended law.
The Executive Yuan said that the amended law can punish fraud rings in tandem with the Criminal Code according to Article 339-4, which stipulates that offenses by dissemination of false information to the public through the Internet and other electronic methods are punishable by between one and seven years in jail.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
RSS