Taiwanese man faces jail

Taiwanese man faces jail

JAKARTA (JP): Bogor District Court has been asked to sentence
a 47-year-old Taiwanese man to 18 months in jail for
counterfeiting his country's currency here.

Prosecutor Junus Saiya told the court on Thursday that James
Wang, alias Wang A. Sung, had admitted to financing the printing
of at least 8,000 fake 1,000 Taiwan dollar notes in Bogor and
distributing them in his country.

One Taiwan dollar equals Rp 265.

Wang hired a local printing firm owned by Sizy Angelina to
print the money for him. He was introduced to Sizy by his friend
Jansen Johanes, alias David, Junus said.

"He confessed to arranging the printing of fake Taiwan dollar
notes here three times -- in July and September 1997 and in
January of this year," the prosecutor said.

"He paid a total of Rp 12 million to Sizy, the owner of
Himalaya printing firm, for the work," Junus said, adding that he
did not know how much David, who supervised the printing, was
paid for his labors.

For the first print run, Sizy was asked to print 10,000 fake
1,000 Taiwan dollar notes.

But the printing did not work properly, the prosecutor said.

In September 1997, a further 8,000 notes were ordered, 2,000
of which were of a quality which could be passed of as genuine
money, Junus said.

The third print produced 6,000 "perfect" bogus 1,000 Taiwan
dollar notes from 8,000 attempts, he said.

The prosecutor said Wang was guilty of violating Article 244
of the Criminal Code on forgery which carries a maximum
punishment of 15 years imprisonment.

Sizy and Jansen were tried separately.

The court was adjourned until Monday to allow the defendant's
lawyers to prepare their case. (24/emf)