Nine Arrested in CIB Operation

When officers of the Taiwan Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) moved in against suspected perpetrators this week, nine people were arrested on allegations of involvement in an illegal professional baseball online gambling ring.

“China Today”, the local newspaper, identified the alleged ringleader as Chou Kuo-an (37) while Huang Chun-chieh (30) was said to be the server operator. Chou, Huang, and seven others were arrested by CIB operatives in collaboration with Taoyuan County police in parts of Hsinchuan City and Taipei County. The suspects were transferred to the Panchiao District Court Office, a CIB spokesman stated.

Police confiscated 17 computer servers, each valued at around NT$400,000 together with other computer equipment including account information of the gambling website's members. A few days earlier, the CIB was tipped off on a gambling ring that received illegal bets reaching amounts of tens of millions NT dollars on a weekly basis.

It appears that the ring ran a variety of gambling websites which include illegal sports gambling sites and was operating with a clearly differentiated four-tiered management system, starting from company headquarters to chief agents to regional agents and local agents. All the agents were employed throughout the island and were in charge of recruiting new members, who placed their bets via the local agents. The local agents worked on commission.

The CIB has previously been alerted to some of the ring's illegal sports gambling sites, such as "Dr. B," "E Post Office," and "Big Sports," which took advantage of the popularity of Yankees' baseball pitcher Wang Chien-ming, a Taiwanese native, to run their unlawful betting business. Preliminary investigations indicate that the ring took in at least NT$10 million in gambling funds every week.

In order to avoid raising police suspicion the computer servers were installed inside a legal company located in Hsinchuan. According to the CIB, Chou has a history of gangster involvement. He launched the gambling operation last September.

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