On Oct. 21, Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團) executive Wei Ying-chun (魏應充) was indicted by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on charges of fraud and other offenses in connection with his involvement in last year’s Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co (大統長基) cooking oil scandal.
Chang Chi chairman Kao Cheng-li (高振利) was sentenced to 16 years in prison at the first trial in December last year, but this sentence was reduced to 12 years at the second trial in July. Wei, however, was only indicted recently.
This is hardly proper handling of a criminal case and it has meant Taiwanese have had to consume tainted cooking oil for another year.
Next Magazine reported that after Wei received more than NT$70 million (US$2.3 million) in commission fees on Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp’s (康師傅控股) listing on the Taiwanese stock exchange in 2009, it made a donation of NT$5.25 million to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) 2010 candidate for Greater Kaohsiung mayor.
The sum was verified by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and the KMT’s Kaohsiung branch issued a receipt to Ting Hsin. However, the KMT denied the donation in a press release, and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has not offered any clear explanation of what happened to the money.
The public is concerned about the government’s patchy investigation of the Ting Hsin cooking oil scandal. Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) even said at the Legislative Yuan last month that the group’s oil products were edible.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office did not take any action for almost a year after Wei was declared to be in breach of the law. However, after the recent tainted oil scandal became public, Ma, under public pressure, pledged to investigate the case and Jiang said prosecutors should detain suspects if necessary. Only then did prosecutors seize Wei’s apartments at The Palace apartment complex and other assets and indict him.
This shows that the indictment was probably politically motivated, as prosecutors dared not investigate the case or indict Wei over the previous year. As a consequence of this delay in the legal procedure, the public continued to consume tainted cooking oil for another year.
In the past, Wei served as vice chairman of a support group formed by business tycoons for Ma’s presidential campaign. If the Cabinet tries to protect Ting Hsin and does not investigate the case for this reason, it would be guilty of influence peddling.
More seriously, if the government’s protection of Ting Hsin and the group’s political donations to the KMT, such as the missing NT$5.25 million, are the result of a collaborative relationship, it would be a serious case of corruption that according to the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) could result in imprisonment for life for demanding, taking or promising to take bribes or other unlawful profiting by acts that violate official duties. Prosecutors should investigate this in order to give consumers in Taiwan an answer.
Did the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office delay the indictment of Wei for a year, and did Jiang say Ting Hsin’s oil products were edible because they were afraid to upset Wei?
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office should remedy the situation immediately. The best way to prove that there was no political intervention is to investigate Ma’s relationship with the Wei family. It should at least clarify what happened to the NT$5.25 million donation the the Wei family made to the KMT, so as to rebuild the credibility of Taiwan’s judiciary.
Huang Di-ying is a lawyer and Democratic Progressive Party spokesman.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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