Supreme Court upholds life sentences in deadly extortion gang case

Taipei, Dec. 11 (CNA) Taiwan's Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld life sentences for two chief offenders and sentences ranging from five to nearly 30 years for 22 accomplices involved in a major extortion ring that held individuals against their will and killed three people in 2022.

The two main defendants in the case, Fu Yu-lin (傅榆藺) and Chen Hua-wei (陳樺韋), were initially handed life sentences by the Shilin District Court on Nov. 22, 2023, for leading a gang that defrauded 267 victims out of a total of NT$393.42 million (US$12.1 million).

Other members of the gang were also sentenced to prison terms ranging from one year and two months to 29 years and six months for their involvement in the large-scale fraud and illegal detention operation.

After considering appeals from the defendants, the Taiwan High Court upheld the lower court's sentences on July 31, 2024.

The Supreme Court's ruling on Wednesday represents the final ruling for the 24 defendants. The case cannot be appealed.

The criminal operation first came to the attention of the authorities in 2022, with reports to the New Taipei City Police leading to the discovery of three bodies in mountainous areas of Taoyuan City and Nantou County.

Investigators came to believe that Tu Cheng-che (杜承哲), leader of a criminal syndicate known as "the Blue Way" (藍道), instructed Fu and Chen to establish a "team" to contact victims online and trick them into handing over their bank account information, while unlawfully detaining them at multiple sites across northern Taiwan for the purpose of defrauding others.

A press statement from the Supreme Court released on Wednesday described how some of the gang's victims were drugged, beaten and subjected to electric shocks.

Two died as a result of their injuries, while a third victim died after falling out of a window in an apparent attempt to escape, in October 2022, according to the court statement.

In a separate trial, Tu and three other key members of the syndicate were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Shilin District Court on July 10, 2024. Their appeals are still pending.