State Acupuncture Official Arrested in Bribery Case

A member of the Board of California Acupuncture Examining Committee was arrested Friday evening on suspicion of taking at least $800,000 in bribes from applicants for the state acupuncture certification examination, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.

Dr. Chae Woo Lew, 53, of Hillsborough, was taken into custody shortly after 6 p.m. at the Los Angeles Airport Hyatt by district attorney’s investigators, spokesman Al Albergate said.

Albergate said Lew is believed to have taken payments of $10,000 to $20,000 each from an estimated 80 test applicants during the last four years, providing them with the test answers.

Passage of the examination is required for the practice of acupuncture in California.

Also involved in the purported scheme, said Albergate, were three Los Angeles-area acupuncture and Oriental medicine schools and colleges. They were not identified.

The arrest reportedly came after a six-month investigation.

Albergate said Lew, who owns and operates his own acupuncture clinic in San Mateo, also serves as departmental chairman of the San Francisco College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. In addition, he is a staff officer for the National Council of Certified Acupuncturists.

He was appointed to the state examining committee by then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. in 1981, and was reappointed by Gov. George Deukmejian.

He was born in South Korea and came to the United States in 1973. He became an American citizen 11 years ago.

Although he is yet to be officially charged with bribery, Albergate said, Lew was arrested on a probable-cause warrant and was being booked into Los Angeles County Jail.

May Be Freed on Bail

He was expected to be released on bail.

Vincent Kim, a local member of the Korean Acupuncture Assn. of Southern California, said Lew visited Los Angeles frequently and has a reputation for having helped develop the acupuncture field in the United States. Kim said news of the investigation has been circulating in the Korean community and has reduced the number of patients in local clinics.

“Acupuncturists in Koreatown have a lot of problems these days,” Kim said. “Even those who have no connection to bribery are in trouble.”