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32 Taiwanese nabbed in Bangladesh for involvement in telecom fraud
Central News Agency
2014-01-27 10:30 PM
New Delhi, Jan. 27 (CNA) Authorities in Bangladesh cracked a telephone fraud ring with Taiwan's help last month and arrested a total of 32 Taiwanese suspects, with seven admitting to crimes, police there have confirmed.
The 32 suspects could be indicted within a week on fraud charges, which would carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail, according to an official in the southern Asian country's Rapid Action Battalion.
The battalion, an elite anti-crime force, arrested the 32 Taiwanese along with five Chinese and seven Bangladeshis in private residences in Dhaka, the country's capital, on Dec. 22, 2013.
It did not publicly release details on the case until Monday. Those arrested are suspected of violating the country's Telecommunication Act by engaging in illegal acts through Internet telephone services, and they could be prosecuted under the more stringent Information and Communication Technology Act.
Kismat Hayat, a commanding officer of the battalion, told CNA that breakthroughs in the case were made with the help of an official from Taiwan's representative office in India and three Taiwanese police officers who were in Dkaha for 4-5 days earlier this month.
He said that although most of the Taiwanese suspects did not cooperate in the investigation, seven admitted to committing criminal acts.
The criminal ring has been active for 18 months and had about 2,000 bank accounts with a total of NT$3.9 billion (US$128 million) in illegal gains, according to the official.
Telephone fraud was common in Taiwan five to 10 years ago, but as local residents got wise to the many scams used, the practice has migrated, first to China, then to Southeast Asia, and now to other emerging economies.
Before the case in Bangladesh, police in Sri Lanka raided five or six locations and cracked a fraud ring who gained access to Internet banks, leading to the arrest of 100 suspects, including 96 Taiwanese.
(By Ho Horng-ru and Y.L. Kao)
