New Taipei: A total of 28 individuals, including actor Darren Wang, have been indicted in a military service evasion case involving false medical certificates that allowed conscripts to avoid serving in the military.
According to Focus Taiwan, the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office revealed that among the 28 indicted, 24 were young men summoned for compulsory military service. The other four individuals, including the alleged mastermind Chen Chih-ming, were responsible for fabricating medical conditions, specifically serious hypertension, to exempt these men from service. Despite being involved, Wang eventually reported for duty in March 2025 and did not evade his service. However, he faces charges of forgery of public documents for claiming he lost his ID and national health insurance cards, which were used by an impostor during hospital visits.
The other 27 individuals, including Chen, are accused of violating the Punishment Act for Violation to Military Service System and the Criminal Code by manipulating their physical status to dodge service and persuading public officials to falsify documents. Prosecutors have recommended a minimum five-year prison sentence for Chen due to the gravity of his actions, which involved recruiting others and facilitating the evasion of military service for numerous men, accumulating illegal gains of NT$7.63 million (US$258,580).
The indictment outlines that Chen charged fees from NT$50,000 to NT$500,000 per person, totaling NT$4.03 million, from those summoned for service, except for Wang, to evade their duties from 2016 to January 2025. Chen and his accomplices instructed the conscripts on manipulating blood pressure tests or arranged for impostors to wear monitors to falsify severe hypertension diagnoses.
These fraudulent medical certificates were then used to alter the conscripts' military status at local registration offices or relevant departments, changing their classification from "active duty" to "under re-evaluation" or "undetermined." Follow-up hospital evaluations continued the deception with impostors, ultimately resulting in military exemption certificates being issued by the Ministry of the Interior's Conscription Health Evaluation and Review Committee.
Prosecutors further disclosed that Wang, who had been living abroad and unable to attend Taiwanese medical appointments, allegedly paid Chen NT$3.6 million to avoid service by feigning a medical condition. He provided his ID and NHI cards to an impostor, but the plan was disrupted due to Chen's imprisonment in an unrelated case in January 2025, compelling Wang to fulfill his military obligations.