The Banciao District Court yesterday sentenced former baseball star Chen Chih-yuan (陳致遠) to a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for game-fixing.
The court also sentenced former baseball player Tsai Fong-an (蔡豐安) to one year and fined him NT$2 million (US$69,500) for the same offense. Former player Yang Po-jen (楊博任) was sentenced to two years and fined NT$1 million. The three were found guilty of harming the image of the professional league, having an unrepentant attitude after committing a crime and wasting judicial resources.
Their case can be appealed.
Photo: Wang Ting-chuang, Taipei Times
The game-fixing case erupted after the 20th championship game in Oct. 2009, involving star players such as Chen, Chang Chih-chia (張誌家), Tsao Chin-hui (曹錦輝) and Liao Yu-cheng (廖于誠) among others.
Last year, the district court indicted Chen, Chang and Tsai on charges of fraud, but Tsao and Hsieh Chia-hsien (謝佳賢) were not indicted because of a lack of evidence.
During the trial in April, the prosecution accused Chen and Tsai, both well paid and trained using state resources, of not only failing to avoid involvement in the scandal but also of denying their criminal activities and misleading the public.
The court said it decided to increase the sentences’ severity because of Chen and Tsai’s unrepentant attitude.
According to the court ruling, Chuang Yu-lin (莊侑霖) gave testimony that after a game on March 25, 2006, Chen and Tsai took a ride in Yu Tse-bin’s (余則彬) car, where Chuang gave Chen a shoebox containing NT$1 million in cash.
Yu was an alleged member of the Windshield Wipers gang, an syndicate accused of placing bets on professional baseball games and recruiting players to manipulate the outcome of those games.
Yesterday’s ruling said that Chen received cash payment days after he had fixed a game.
However, the district court did not have strong enough evidence regarding accusations that Chen also received sexual favors.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
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