Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/05/18
By: Wang Yang-yu and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, May 18 (CNA) Three foreign defendants in the theft of more than NT$83.27 million (US$2.75 million) from First Bank ATMs last year received lighter penalties from the Taiwan High Court Thursday than were handed down earlier this year by a lower court.

Andrejs Peregudovs from Latvia, Romanian Mihail Colibaba and Moldovan Niklae Penkov were each sentenced to five years in prison and fined NT$600,000 by the Taipei District Court in January for offenses against fraud and computer security. They later filed an appeal.

On Thursday, the high court reduced the penalty to four years and 10 months for Peregudovs, four years and eight months for Colibaba, and four years and six months for Penkov, on the grounds that there is no credible evidence indicating that the suspects were the masterminds behind the fraud.    [FULL  STORY]