Legal Service Special Course Reflection on the "Dummy Account Case": Chang Wei-chih

Reflections on Interviewing the Client

Mr. Teng's case reminded me of the case involving the niece of Police University associate professor Yeh Yü-lan a few years ago. That case bore a startling resemblance to Mr. Teng's situation: both were devoted to Buddhist practice, both believed in the truth, goodness, and beauty of the human world, and both were convicted yet suffered in silence. In fact, upon first hearing Mr. Teng's story, what I felt was the immense hardship hidden behind the cold text of the judgment—breathless under the heavy burdens of life and the blows of fraud, filled with grievance and frustration. Being the victim yet still being sentenced, the bitterness of this judicial injustice has remained lodged in Mr. Teng's heart.

Upon learning of Mr. Teng's economic status and occupation, I took some time to look online into the nature of security guard work. What I saw was an industry full of hardship: aside from long working hours (security guards generally work on a 12-hour baseline), few benefits (few holidays, no year-end bonuses), and disappointing pay (wages generally at the statutory minimum), Mr. Teng now faces the risk of losing even this livelihood due to this blow. One must ask: when our law fails to catch the real members of the fraud syndicate who remain at large, yet brings down the hammer of public authority on hard-surviving individuals striving to get by like Mr. Teng, what on earth is our law protecting? What does it ultimately achieve?

On the day I attended the appellate hearing of Mr. Teng's case, Wei-t'ing and I went to the New Taipei District Court to observe Attorney Fan fighting for Mr. Teng's innocence. But what made me feel somewhat uncomfortable was that, after the court was adjourned, the prosecutor who indicted Mr. Teng actually told him that he should also examine his own situation regarding why he was convicted, and so forth. Through that prosecutor's words and courtroom exchanges, it was not hard to spot the prosecutor's deep distrust of Mr. Teng and insistence on incriminating him, even going out of his way to say this to Mr. Teng after the proceedings concluded. Yet I believe that even if Mr. Teng made a mistake, it was merely the mistake of trusting others too easily, and he is by no means a calculating, conscience-deprived criminal like a fraud syndicate member. Therefore, that prosecutor's attitude was truly something I could not condone. There are countless wrongful convictions like Mr. Teng's, yet our judicial personnel merely think that a suspended sentence is lenient, completely failing to understand that it concerns a person's lifelong innocence.

Basically, members of the public who sell dummy accounts are mostly economically disadvantaged groups who, either voluntarily or through deception, hand over bankbooks, debit cards, and personal seals to fraud syndicates. The "accomplices" caught first by the police are often them. But even if the law is relied upon to punish these people, they likely have no assets to pay the fines, let alone having compulsory execution levied against them. Therefore, current laws, apart from scattering a handful of painful frost upon a group of people already struggling to survive amidst a heavy blizzard, fail to achieve any substantive deterrent effect against fraudulent behavior and, in my view, hold little significance. Thus, amendments to the current legal provisions are imperative.

Reflections on the Seminar

As a senior who had never even attended a single seminar, the first one I ever attended turned out to be the dummy account seminar that we organized ourselves. Thinking back to the day of the seminar, perhaps due to excessive nerves, as the lecturer receptionist, I actually mistook an audience member for Attorney Ku Li-hsiung, the moderator of the first session, and directly ushered him into the venue. He looked at me in puzzlement and asked, "Don't I need to sign in?" I confidently replied, "Moderators don't need to sign in!" Then, with a smile, he asked me, "Do I look like a moderator?" Oh god! At that moment I just wanted to crawl into a hole because mistaking someone was terribly embarrassing. I only realized afterward that the gentleman was from the JRF, which was why he looked particularly familiar. Knowing him made me feel a bit better later on... Putting this incident aside, the seminar was quite a success.

Recalling the preparation process for the seminar, I realized just how difficult organizing a seminar is. A month prior, the speakers and discussants had not yet been finalized, and the proposal could not be written; then, with less than three weeks for promotion, we worried no one would come; next, we found ourselves unable to find sponsorship funds to print handouts, thinking we would have to absorb the costs ourselves; and in the end, it turned into worrying about excessive registration numbers and having to prepare more seats and refreshments on the day of the event. Although the planning process was filled with numerous twists and turns and worrisome matters, I am very grateful to have had a group of dedicated and responsible partners, especially the administrative team members—Ching-hsüan and Yün-ju. Thank you for the opportunity for us to make name tags together (although I spent most of the time teasing you on the side). You should know that to make good name tags, font sizes and background patterns were argued over for a long time before being finalized; thank you for being willing to stay back with me until past 12 midnight just to make a satisfactory detailed schedule before you were willing to go home; thank you for not mocking me for too long when I forgot to bring the receipt and made a wasted trip to Carrefour; and thank you because sharing site visits, props creation, and equipment borrowing gave us the chance to know each other better, and even allowed me to see Yün-ju, usually so assertive, having moments of breakdown and pleading. At those moments, I felt that all the hardship was worth it, haha!

I am also very grateful to Yü-an for being willing to help me write the proposal, to Ying-ying for organizing articles and editing my drafts, to P'ei-han for going together to court observations and completing the draft amendments, to Hsin-fang for helping cover the reception of lecturers on the day of the seminar, to Shih-k'ai for the overall planning and inter-group coordination of the seminar, to Yü-hsüan for helping complete the police interview manuscript, and to P'ei-chün for telling me your thoughts on this class in the gymnasium. I also want to thank Executive Secretary Wei-t'ing, who constantly helped us accomplish matters big and small along the way; whenever she was around, there was a reassuring and reliable feeling. And many thanks to Teacher Wei-ch'ün. Unlike other teachers, no matter how busy Teacher Wei-ch'ün was, he would still hold meetings with us, answer our questions via messages, and silently accompany us through many things.

It feels like there are still many people to thank, including the police officers and Mr. K'ung who were willing to be interviewed; our first client—Mr. Teng; Attorney Fan, who taught us much practical experience; and of course the cooperating JRF. It felt like taking this class meant we were here to help victims whose accounts were stolen in dummy account cases, but upon careful thought, it turns out I am the greatest beneficiary of this class. I learned about many problems I had never thought of before, experienced lessons books could not bring me, and understood what aspects of the judicial system still require our continued attention and efforts to improve. I also hope such a great class can continue to be offered, and I hope the day will come when the dummy account case is resolved.