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Underground remittance ring busted
2015/08/03 20:05:58
Taipei, Aug. 3 (CNA) The Bureau of Investigation reported Monday that it has cracked down on an underground remittance group, intercepting four suspects at airports who were about to smuggle more than NT$30 million (US$946,969) out of the country.
The investigators said the suspects were intercepted at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taichung Airport, with NT$33.7 million in cash seized from them.
The investigators also raided seven locations, including an underground accounting firm and several shops catering to Indonesian workers in Taiwan.
Chang, the mastermind of the underground remittance group, is an Indonesian Chinese, according to the investigators. After obtaining Republic of China nationality in 2013, Chang began to open Indonesian shops of his own and persuaded a dozen others in central and northern Taiwan to serve as his affiliates and collect cash from Indonesian workers in Taiwan seeking to remit money home.
The cash was then hidden in cups, gloves, shoes and pencil boxes and sneaked out of the country in checked-in luggage.
The initial investigation shows that Chang has smuggled more than NT$7 billion out of Taiwan since 2013. The suspects have been turned over to the law enforcement authorities for violating the Banking Act.
(By Liao Jen-kai and Lilian Wu)
