A man working for a recycling company who claimed to have found 14 US$100 bills and tried to exchange them for New Taiwan dollars is being investigated for attempting to circulate counterfeit funds, Taipei police said yesterday.
The 37-year-old man, surnamed Su (蘇), took the bills to two separate bank branches to see if they were genuine, but employees at both said they looked suspicious, and urged him to go to the Bank of Taiwan’s head office to have them authenticated, police said.
Although Su did go to the bank’s head office, he went directly to the foreign exchange department to try and change the money, police said. After determining they were counterfeit, the police were notified.
Photo courtesy of Taipei city police department.
If convicted Su could face three to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to NT$90,000 under the Criminal Code, police said. People in possession of suspected counterfeit money are asked to report it to the police or to the Central Bank’s Department of Issuing, they added.
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Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
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