A suspect in a money laundering case was escorted by law enforcement officers back to Taiwan from Thailand on Thursday.
Kuo Che-min (郭哲敏), who was arrested in Thailand on July 27, was transferred into the custody of the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office shortly after being repatriated on a China Airlines flight at 3:30pm.
Criminal Investigation Bureau Deputy Commissioner Chen Ming-chun (陳明君) told reporters that authorities suspected Kuo’s organization of fraud, money laundering and restriction of personal liberties.
Photo: Tony Yao, Taipei Times
Police took 23 people into custody, and seized cash and real estate in several raids conducted last year, Chen said.
Kuo absconded to Singapore in October last year and has been traveling between Southeast Asian countries using a Taiwanese and a Cambodian passport, Chen said.
Taiwanese investigators were alerted of Kuo’s whereabouts after Malaysian authorities flagged his Cambodian passport when he used it to travel between Malaysia and Thailand.
Kuo’s organization is accused of handling illegal transactions to launder foreign currencies totaling about NT$2.7 billion (US$84.9 million).
Officials estimated that the organization might have made NT$100 million from the operations.
Kuo is suspected to have worked with Lin Pin-wen (林秉文), a Taiwanese linked to organized crime.
In February, the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office brought charges against Kuo, Lin and their alleged accomplices for contravening the Banking Act (銀行法) and the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法).
Among those arrested was Kuo’s purported accountant Chen Pin-yen (陳品言), who on Tuesday was taken into custody upon her return to Taiwan from Cambodia.
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