Virus Outbreak: Bureau questions six over ‘mask hoarding’

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 05, 2020
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

The Criminal Investigation Bureau yesterday said it had arrested six people on suspicion of illegally stockpiling and selling medical masks made by a factory in central Taiwan.

Bureau officials told a news briefing that they had seized 180,000 masks after raiding the factory and several warehouses on Friday last week.

Factory staff and management have allegedly colluded to sell a total of 700,000 masks for NT$10 (US$0.33) each — double the government-mandated price of NT$5 — and made a profit of NT$5 million, officials said.

The factory is reportedly connected to one of the 30 companies making up the national team for mask production, which has been working in collaboration with three government-funded research institutes since February and has a daily capacity of 22 million masks.    [FULL  STORY]