The investigation into the controversy surrounding the sale of Kinmen kaoliang liquor continued yesterday, as five people were detained and all 15 members of the Kinmen County Council, including the speaker, were questioned.
Following questioning that started on Tuesday, prosecutors yesterday requested the detention of eight people. The Kinmen District Court yesterday morning approved the prosecution's request to detain Kinmen County Commissioner Chen Shui-tsai's (陳水在) son, Chen Hung-jen (陳宏仁); the general manager of county government-run Kinmen Alcohol Corp (金門酒廠), Hsin Kuan-te (辛寬得); and three other officials from the company and its contractual distributor and joint manufacturer, Asia Liquor (亞洲酒品). The court granted bail to the other three.
Kinmen prosecutors and investigators yesterday questioned county council speaker Chen Shui-mu (
A source in the Fukien Provincial Council has alleged that Asia Liquor was "obviously unqualified" to handle the distribution contract it won from Kinmen Alcohol. Hwang Chaur-grey (黃朝貴), divisional head prosecutor of the Kinmen District Prosecutors' Office, said complicity between government officials and businessmen had been found in the granting of the distribution contract.
Since 1999, Kinmen Alcohol has collaborated with Asia Liquor to produce low alcohol content kaoliang liquor while publicly held Hui Shung Agriculture and Food Corp (惠勝實業) has distributed the product despite the fact that Asia Liquor, its subsidiary, holds the actual contract for distribution.
A source in the Fukien Provincial Council, who had reported the scandal to the prosecution but has declined to be identified, said that Kinmen Alcohol chose Asia Liquor as its business partner "despite the fact that the latter was obviously unqualified."
He said that Asia Liquor does not possess any "new technology" as it claimed. At the time the contract was negotiated and signed, Asia Liquor claimed it had a special process for making 38 percent alcohol content kaoliang liquor. In fact, it simply dilutes 58 percent kaoliang liquor to strength.
He said, however, that according to the prosecution's findings to date, Asia Liquor, a subsidiary of Hui Shung Agriculture and Food, had served simply as a tool of the latter for the purpose of acquiring the distribution contract.
The chief of Asia Liquor, Wu Hsueh-liang (
The Fukien Provincial Council source said that no contract exists between Kinmen Alcohol and Hui Shung concerning the sale of alcohol. What happened, he said, is that Asia Liquor transferred the distributorship to Hui Shung. He accused county commissioner Chen Shui-tsai, a former chairman of the board of Kinmen Alcohol, of illegally profiting from the collusion between Hui Shung and Asia Liquor.
He said that Kinmen Alcohol pays NT$19.8 per bottle to Asia Liquor in manufacturing fees and then sells the alcohol to Asia Liquor at a price of NT$259.44. Asia Liquor sells it to Hui Shung at a price of NT$300 before Hui Shung sells to retailers at NT$351 and, finally, retailers sell to customers at NT$530 per bottle.
No one from either Kinmen Alcohol or Asia Liquor was available for comment yesterday.
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