The National Immigration Agency (NIA) has cracked down on a loan shark ring that targeted Indonesian migrant workers and forced them to pay up to 152 percent interest on the amounts they borrowed, the agency said Saturday.
The NIA's Chiayi County Brigade recently searched four locations in Taichung and Changhua with local police and found 342 passports, receipts for loans, accounts, and money counting machines, and over NT$7 million (US$246,303) in cash, said deputy brigade chief Lai Shu-yi (???).
A total of 22 people thought to be involved with the loan shark ring, including five main suspects, were also summoned for questioning, and when two of the five did not show up, they were arrested, the NIA said in a separate statement.
All 22 were later released after being interrogated, but the case has been handed over to the Taichung District Prosecutors Office for further investigation to determine if the main suspects should be indicted for violating criminal and banking laws, the NIA said.
The investigation began after an Indonesian migrant worker tipped off the NIA to the loan shark ring at the end of last year.
The worker said he borrowed money from the ring to help out with an emergency in his hometown and was asked to hand over his passport, sign a promissory note, and agree to high interest rates, the NIA said.
The investigation eventually found that the ring was charging the workers an annual interest rate of 121 percent to 152 percent.
Lai told CNA the ring was headed by a Taiwanese man surnamed Yang (?) and an Indonesian Chinese woman surnamed Huang (?), who is suspected of posting advertisements online that targeted Indonesian migrant workers.
Many of the workers borrowed money from the ring because they needed money for emergencies and had no other legal channels through which they could access funds, said Lai, who estimated that there were hundreds of victims across Taiwan.
Borrowers who were not able to pay back their loans and interest on time had their photos and loan details posted on social media, and ring members would even turn up at the residence of the worker's employer to force the worker to pay the money back, according to the NIA.
An Indonesian caregiver in New Taipei, whose name has been withheld for her safety, told CNA she had a loan agency call her repeatedly even after she repaid a loan to harass her and threaten to tell her employer that she still owed them money.
She informed her employer, and he told her to tell the loan agency he would call police if they called again. After doing as her employer instructed, the loan agency stopped calling, she said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel