Prosecutors searched at least 13 locations and questioned more than a dozen people yesterday in the ongoing investigation into the snowballing Zanadau Development Corp scandal.
Prosecutors from the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office questioned Zanadau major shareholder Su Hui-chen (
The prosecutors were still questioning the shareholders and employees as of press time last night.
The investigators also searched county government offices, the accounting offices that handled Zanadau's accounts and the company's offices in Taipei City and Kaohsiung County.
Detectives from the investigation bureau under the Ministry of Justice also participated in the action.
The focus of the investigation now appears to be on alleged corruption among Kaohsiung County government officials in the rezoning and licensing process of the Zanadau project, according to Chinese-language media.
The report said that Zanadau obtained approval from the county government in December 1996 to rezone a tract of farmland for the Tahu development project.
The company failed to start construction within nine months of approval as required by law, the report said, adding that the county government failed to revoke the project's development license in accordance with the law.
The plan was to build an 11-hectare shopping mall that would feature a man-made ski-playground, among other exotic facilities.
Prosecutors also want to know why Zanadau's environmental impact assessment, which was rejected in the first review, was passed in the second review without any significant improvement, the report said.
The site designated for the Tahu project used to be occupied by pig farms and the soil was seriously polluted, the report said.
The new developments have caused Su to be listed as a suspect by the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office, even though she is listed as a victim in Taipei in light of her accusations that former KMT treasurer Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) and others received massive payments from her to facilitate the project, but did not make good on their promises.
In September, Su accused Liu of accepting NT$1.06 billion in kickbacks for a promise to help her secure bank loans 10 times as much, a promise Su said was not honored.
Prosecutors questioned Liu late last month, but the Taipei District Court rejected a request for his detention on Nov 28. On Dec. 12, however, the Taiwan High Court ordered the lower court to hear the detention request again.
Apart from the Zanadau case, Liu is also under suspicion of several counts of theft from the KMT as well as breach of trust.
Su has also accused Benny Hu (胡定吾), former president of China Development Industrial Bank, and his agent of bilking millions of dollars from her. Hu has denied any wrongdoing.
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