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By Wang Ting-chuan and Hollie Younger / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme.
Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said.
He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said.
Photo: Hu Shun-hsiang, Taipei Times
Chen is accused of helping a number of Taiwanese celebrities dodge compulsory military service, including award-winning actor Hsueh Shih-ling (薛仕凌) and former boyband Energy member Chang Shu-wei (張書偉).
After Chen failed to provide the enlisted services, Wang’s codefendant and son of a well-known car dealer Yu Hsiang-min (游翔閔) allegedly approached police officer Liu Chu-jung (劉居榮) in February last year to illegally obtain Chen’s personal data, prosecutors said.
Liu at the time was acting captain of the Third Investigation Division of the Taipei Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division, they said.
Liu logged into the police data system under the false pretext of a separate investigation to obtain his personal data, which he sent to Wang, prosecutors said.
In a separate incident, Wang’s livestreamer girlfriend Chueh Mu-hsuan (闕沐軒) was defrauded of more than NT$4 million by a man surnamed Pan (潘), they said.
Wang allegedly arranged for Four Seas Gang (四海幫) leader Chen Tzu-chun (陳子俊) to purchase the personal data of Pan and his relatives, including addresses and phone numbers, from a land administration agent, they added.
Prosecutors indicted Wang, Chueh, Yu, Chen Tzu-chun, Liu and others on charges including document forgery, leaking confidential information and contraventions of the Personal Data Protection Act.
Wang denied wrongdoing, saying he did not directly contact Chen Tzu-chun and did not instruct him to obtain others’ personal data, prosecutors said.
Liu admitted to logging into the police system under false pretenses, although denied leaking the data to Wang, insisting the information was sent “by mistake,” they added.
Liu today was sentenced to one year and four months for document forgery.
Chueh was sentenced to six months for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act, commutable to a fine, while Chen Tzu-chun, Yu and another associate — who all pleaded guilty — were each sentenced to three months, all commutable to a fine, for contraventions of the Personal Data Protection Act.
Additional reporting by CNA
