Police cracked down on the core leadership of a massive organized crime ring last year, piquing great social interest.
The criminal ring used remittances to launder money and commit wire fraud, raking in illegal earnings of up to NT$8.8 billion (US$279 million).
Twenty accomplices were tried separately, but only received prison sentences of six months to one year and two months. The sentences were then either reduced to suspended sentences or four-year probations.
This was a far cry from what society expected of its courts.
“There have been many criminal cases where Taiwanese were arrested as part of overseas crime rings, who were arrested and repatriated to Taiwan, but released upon arrival. Many of their sentences have only lasted between a couple of months and one or two years at most,” media reports said at that time.
Majority of the sentences were reduced to fines, leading local police to deridingly say: “Rather than coming back to face an investigation, they came back to enjoy luxury.”
On Feb. 22, the Taiwan Judicial Reform Care and Mutual Aid Association harshly criticized the nation’s lax sentencing, and its tolerance of money laundering and fraud. It has reached a point where the public could hardly tolerate it anymore and is struggling to find a solution.
The money defrauded from the public reached NT$887.8 billion last year, an astounding new historic high, statistics from the Criminal Investigation Bureau showed. Crimes included fraud, gambling and money laundering, with the latter being the most commonly used method of selling off stolen assets.
The association said that it stands with the public and rebukes the courts’ light sentences.
The public relies on the courts to uphold public safety and the laws of the country, but at present, it seems that they are not good at stopping crime.
The sentences are always too light, and the sentences of criminals involved in money laundering and fraud are sometimes even suspended.
With punishments being far too lenient compared with the “rewards” they reap, criminals might think that they have nothing to fear, which would only increase criminal activity.
“We do our utmost to catch criminals, but the courts treat them with kid gloves. The courts disempower police when it comes to handling cases. More importantly, society thinks that it is police forces that are inept, which gives police officers a bad name. We clearly strive hard to catch criminals, but whether they are set free or how they are sentenced, is not something we are at liberty to question,” anonymous police officers and judicial personnel said.
A relatively high proportion of principal offenders, accomplices or accessories involved in fraud or money laundering — regardless of the level of involvement or the number of crimes committed — was charged with just one crime under a principle of cooperation and competition between different jurisdictions, the association said.
Even if one confesses to the crime, sometimes the courts just suspend their sentence, allowing offenders to shirk liability and avoid jail time. They are even considering suspending the sentences of criminals who are already in prison.
Although there are organized crime laws and statutes that are exercisable for aggravated fraud, judges are not brushed up on the latest legal thinking and do not use new laws and statutes to increase the severity of sentences.
Following an amendment to the Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪防制條例) in 2017, crimes of fraud syndicates could be defined as involvement in organized crime groups — as described in the latter half of Article 3, Section 1 — as well as aggravated fraud, as listed in Article 339-4, Section 1 of the Criminal Code, the association said.
This would allow the courts to leverage criminals against each other by connecting them to crime rings, racking up criminal culpability (criminal egregiousness) and increasing the weight of their sentences, it added.
However, the courts hardly ever recognize these clauses and statutes. Their judgements and sentencing remain outdated, allowing outlaws to get off scot-free.
Could this be the main reason behind the gradual increase in crimes involving fraud?
Fraud and money laundering have reached a historic high.
If the courts continue to maintain their old and ossified way of thinking, public ire would not be placated and their decisions would run counter to the public’s call for legal reform to deter crime.
Joseph Lee is a lawyer and chairman of the Taiwan Judicial Reform Care and Mutual Aid Association.
Translated by Tim Smith
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