The Panchiao District Prosecutors' office yesterday indicted independent lawmaker Wu Tse-yuan (
Wu allegedly received NT$30 million in kickbacks for the project while head of the Taiwan Provincial Planning and Developing Department.
Prosecutors recommended the court sentence Wu to 15 years in jail for the crime and revoke his citizen's rights for seven years. Three other officials in the department were also indicted, with prosecutors requesting sentences from eight to 15 years.
Between 1987 and 1992 Wu and other officials paid a contractor involved in the plant's construction over NT$62 million in design fees even though the company failed to complete its assigned work, prosecutors said.
The indictment also says that Wu and his cohorts manipulated the criteria for contractors awarding the project to selected companies. Wu also inflated the budget of the project from NT$ 2.4 billion to NT$5.138 billion.
The company which conspired with Wu was awarded the contract for NT$4.343 billion and Wu illegally paid the company 30 percent of that total immediately after the contract was signed, the indictment says.
Wu was unable to be reached for comment yesterday.
Wu is currently in the process of appealing a 15-year conviction in another cash-for-favors scandal, in which he was found to have had accepted more than NT$6 million in kickbacks from a company which bid for a pumping station project in 1992.
Wu, who was detained after a trial by the Panchiao District Court in 1996, was granted bail for medical reasons by the High Court in May 1998.
Seven months after his release, the former KMT politician was elected to the legislature -- despite his membership having been revoked by the party, which disapproved of his campaign.
As an enormously powerful politician in the southern county of Pingtung, Wu received widespread attention due to his involvement in the case. Previous court rulings have swung wildly between his favor and that of the prosecutors.
He was previously sentenced to life in prison by the Panchiao District Court, but the sentence was reversed later in higher courts, which then invoked doubts over the impartiality of the court.
Apart from his sentence, Wu's medical parole has also been attacked in light of his run for the legislature. Some critics have called for the lawmaker to be put back in detention.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS