Banciao District prosecutors yesterday indicted 24 people accused of involvement in a professional baseball match-fixing scandal, including former La New Bears pitcher Chang Chih-chia (張誌家), Brother Elephants player Chen Chih-yuan (陳致遠) and Tainan County Council Speaker Wu Chien-bao (吳健保).
Prosecutors decided not to indict another 11 players, while 24 others were handed a deferred prosecution, which means they will be indicted if they are involved in any misconduct in the future.
Several players, including Chang and Chen, were charged with fraud and gambling. Prosecutors requested two-year prison sentences for the players allegedly involved in match-fixing, said Cheng Hsin-hung (鄭鑫宏), a spokesperson for the Banciao Prosecutors’ Office.
They said they did not request leniency in the indictments for Chang and Chen because the pair refused to admit to the charges against them, showed no remorse for the crimes they allegedly committed and did not cooperate with the investigation.
Chang had allegedly been persuaded by the “Windshield Wipers” criminal gang to throw games by accepting bribes in the form of expensive cars and cash.
Chen is suspected of taking NT$1 million (US$32,000) to cooperate in match-fixing in 2006.
Tsai Cheng-yi (蔡政宜) and other members of the gambling group that solicited players to throw games were also indicted along with the players.
Prosecutors requested lighter sentences for Tsai and others in the gang because they believe they did not threaten players to fix games. Members of the criminal gang were also very cooperative during the investigation process and provided valuable information and evidence, prosecutors said.
Although prosecutors believe that Elephants pitcher Tsao Chin-hui (曹錦輝) and Sinon Bulls Hsieh Chia-hsien (謝佳賢) also received “inappropriate benefits” from the Windshield Wipers, prosecutors did not indict them because there was insufficient evidence to back up the allegations.
Former Brother Elephants coach Shim Nakagomi was also accused of telling players to throw games, with prosecutors requesting a year-and-a-half jail term. He was arrested in November after prosecutors got wind of his plan to flee the country.
Prosecutors requested a nine-year prison sentence and fine of NT$50 million for Wu and alleged that the council speaker was involved in fraud and organized crime in connection with the match-fixing case.
Wu was mired in rumors that he had faked illness when he checked into the hospital just one day after receiving a court summons to appear for questioning last month.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary