Taipei, May 29 (CNA) A government anti-corruption agency and prosecutors on Tuesday searched a number of locations and took 10 policemen back for questioning for their alleged roles in an insurance scam that started as early as 2004.

The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office said investigators searched 33 locations and took five policemen in New Taipei, another three in Taoyuan, and one each in Taipei and Kaohsiung back for questioning.

The office also summoned 10 other suspects for their alleged involvement in the scam.

The Agency against Corruption under the Ministry of Justice said it received a tipoff in February that 10 cops and insurance company employees have been allegedly fabricating police statements, medical records and hospital receipts to swindle insurance reimbursement for fraudulent car accidents since 2004.

According to initial findings, the prosecutors office said the suspects were allegedly involved in dozens of cases and fraudulently claimed more than NT$100 million (US$3.39 million).

New Taipei City Police Department said it made a report to prosecutors in March after it spotted irregularities in a case, in which a cop in Xindian, surnamed Kao, allegedly worked with a Taian Insurance Co. employee in an attempt to swindle NT$6 million in insurance reimbursement.

The "victims" in the fake car accidents were awarded some NT$1 million to NT$4 million for their roles and each of the cops received NT$60,000-NT$80,000 for each case, the department said.

It added the five policemen in the city allegedly committed the crimes from 2006-2010 and some of them even introduced other policemen to the scam.

Prosecutors said further investigations would be conducted to see if medical employees were involved, for instance by providing counterfeit medical records.

(By Sunrise Huang, Sabrina Li, Tsai Pei-chi and Jamie Wang)
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