Lack of fraud victims hinders Taipei police's classification of Prince Group money laundering case

A dispute has emerged between Taipei and New Taipei police departments regarding the performance evaluation of a money laundering case involving the Prince Group. The core of the disagreement lies in how the case should be classified, with significant implications for police performance metrics.

New Taipei City Police Department contends that the case, as prosecuted by the Taipei District Prosecutors Office against 62 defendants, lacks concrete evidence of fraud victims. They argue that the case's focus is on the group's online gambling and money laundering activities, which involved approximately 10.8 billion NT dollars in illicit funds. New Taipei questions whether all the seized assets, amounting to 5.5 billion NT dollars, can be definitively attributed to fraudulent gains.

Based on this assessment, New Taipei has petitioned the National Police Agency to deny Taipei City Police the high-value special score typically awarded for telecommunications fraud cases. They assert that classifying this case as fraud would be unfair given the evidence presented.

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The indictment lists the criminal modus operandi as channeling large amounts of illicit proceeds into online gambling operations for money laundering. The charges against the defendants do not involve the crime of fraud under the Criminal Code.

The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) has reviewed the case and concurred with New Taipei's assessment. In a formal letter to Taipei City Police, the CIB explained that a key requirement for classifying a case as a telecommunications fraud group investigation is the presence of fraud victims. Since the indictment and related documents do not identify specific victims of fraud, the CIB concluded that the defendants are primarily suspected of online gambling and money laundering offenses, which fall outside the scope of fraud classification.

Caught between the two police departments, the CIB has attempted to de-escalate the situation. To appease Taipei City Police and protect the interests of their investigators, the CIB stated in its letter that if further evidence emerges confirming fraud, Taipei City Police can resubmit their application within one month of receiving a supplementary indictment or court verdict. This offer aims to temporarily resolve the dispute over the performance score.

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A 'fraud victim' is a required element for classifying investigations into telecommunications fraud groups. Since the case transfer documents and the indictment dated March 4 do not include fraud victims, it indicates that Wang Yu-tang and the other 62 individuals are primarily suspected of online gambling and money laundering, which does not align with the fraud assessment criteria.