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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Sisters accused of cult scam sued for ‘brainwashing’
Chuang Ching-chieh poses with books she authored in Hsinchu County in an undated photograph. Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
By Chou Ming-hung, Jason Pan and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporters, with staff writer
The parents of a former Presidential Education Award winner who died, possibly from malnutrition, are suing two sisters accused of operating a religious cult and direct-sales scheme, alleging that their daughter was brainwashed and paid millions of New Taiwan dollars for products in a scheme operated by the two sisters.
Parents of the 30-year-old visually impaired Chuang Ching-chieh （莊靜潔） filed charges against Cheng Yu-mei （鄭玉梅） and Cheng Wan-ju （鄭宛汝） at the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office of defrauding, kidnapping by enticement and inflicting bodily injury resulting in death.
“We hope prosecutors will investigate the case and find out what happened. The people who caused our daughter’s death must be brought to justice and punished for what they did,” Chuang’s mother said. “Since our daughter’s death, the Cheng sisters have never once made a telephone call to us. So far we have heard nothing from them. We hope they will come to our daughter’s funeral next week.”
Criminal malpractice by alternative medicine practitioners is suspected in the death of Chuang on Tuesday last week, the Taoyuan Police Department said.
Chuang died in Taoyuan at the home of Cheng Yu-mei, who was providing purported therapeutic treatment to Chuang, police said, adding that Cheng Yu-mei was Chuang’s spiritual adviser and mentor in a therapeutic acupressure technique known as Jin Shin Do.
Police said that on the day before her death, Chuang told Cheng Yu-mei that she felt ill, and Cheng Yu-mei took Chuang from her family home to her residence for treatment.
Cheng Yu-mei, Cheng Wan-ju and another spiritualist, surnamed Tseng （曾）, applied acupressure therapy to Chuang, which the therapists said had successfully alleviated Chuang’s ailments previously, police said.
However, Chuang’s condition failed to improve and the therapists administered oxygen using a hydrogen-oxygen machine and vitamin C-fortified water in addition to acupressure, police said.
Chuang retched, cried out and “rolled repeatedly” during the treatment, according to the therapists.
At 5am the next morning the therapists found Chuang was not breathing and was cold to the touch. They called emergency services and when first responders arrived at the scene, they pronounced Chuang dead, police said.
The coroner’s preliminary autopsy showed Chuang might have suffered a serious heart condition that required urgent treatment, police said.
Police investigators said the therapists might have contributed to Chuang’s death by denying her access to lifesaving treatment and by convincing her to fast — at times for several days.
Chuang in 2007 won the Presidential Education Award for her work in life education as a touring inspirational speaker. Macular degeneration rendered her legally blind as a child.
Despite her blindness, Chuang graduated from National Tsing Hua University with an advanced degree in software engineering, became a published author, and toured the nation encouraging blind children to study and learn computer coding.
Investigators suspect Cheng Yu-mei targeted Chuang as early as 2007, and that Chuang paid more than NT$2 million （US$61,770） to Cheng Yu-mei as her spiritual adviser and on items Cheng Yu-mei sold.
Additional reporting by Lee Jung-ping
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
