18-year prison sentence confirmed for crime gang leader who trafficked 88 victims

Taipei, Nov. 8 (CNA) Taiwan’s Supreme Court has upheld an 18-year prison sentence for the leader of a crime gang that sold 88 victims into forced labor in Cambodia.

In late October, the Supreme Court found there were no problems with the prison sentence of crime gang leader Lee Chen-hao (李振豪), who denied any wrongdoing during his trial at the Taipei District Court.

The ruling remains unchanged since the district court’s first ruling in April 2023.

Lee’s accomplices had their sentences reduced from 11 to 16.5 years to 9 to 16.5 years by the Supreme Court after some pleaded guilty to certain charges they had previously denied, according to the ruling.

This case is part of a wave of job fraud that came to light in the summer of 2022 when thousands of Taiwanese were found to have been trafficked to several Southeast Asian countries, most notably Cambodia.

According to the district court’s ruling, members of the ring began posting ads on Facebook in November 2021, offering high-paying, Cambodia-based customer service jobs for gaming and gambling websites.

After victims arrived in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and other locations, members of local criminal organizations confiscated their passports and forced them to work in telecommunications fraud networks or pay large ransoms to return to Taiwan.

Those who refused to work or failed to meet performance targets were beaten, locked in solitary confinement or even sold to other criminal gangs, the ruling says.

According to prosecutors, Lee and his accomplices ultimately trafficked 88 Taiwanese nationals to Cambodia and received between $17,000 and $18,000 for each victim from Cambodian criminal organizations.

Taiwanese authorities rescued 22 victims in 2022 and have since rescued another 30. Based on their statements, prosecutors filed indictments against Lee and his eight co-conspirators in September 2022 and January 2023.

The district court found all nine defendants guilty of human trafficking, engaging in organized crime, and fraudulently inducing others to leave the Republic of China.

Their sentences varied depending on the extent of their involvement in the crimes, the harm caused to the victims and the extent to which they cooperated with investigators after their arrest, the district court said.