Tainan politicians indicted for graft

A number of top politicians in southern Taiwan were indicted on corruption and other charges by Tainan prosecutors on Friday night, including the speaker and vice speaker of the Tainan City Council and the speaker of the Tainan County Council.

"A total of 68 defendants were indicted in three cases," said Fan Wen-hao (范文豪), a spokesman for the Tainan Prosecutors' Office.

Tainan City Council Speaker Huang Yu-wen (黃郁文) and Vice-Speaker Wong Chow-cheng (翁朝正) were indicted for bribery, blackmail and coercion.

Prosecutors recommended the court sentence Huang to 17 years in prison and fine him NT$100 million (US$ 2.9 million).

They have asked for a 12-year term and NT$30 million for Wong.

Prosecutors allege that Huang and Wong received more than NT$100 million from the Yiching Construction Co in order to arrange for the firm to win a construction job in the Heshuenliao (何順寮) agricultural area.

They said that Huang and Wong, as members of their council's construction committee, were responsible for reducing the budget of the Heshuenliao project from NT$240 million to NT$190 million and that the two men had orchestrated requirements on materials and other details to the Yiching's advantage.

Former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味), National Federation of Construction chairman Pan Chun-jung (潘俊榮), and Tainan County Councilor Lee Chuan-fu (李全富) were indicted on forgery charges for allegedly trying to arrange for other companies to be selected in the Heshuenliao tender process. Prosecutors have asked for 28-month jail terms for all three.

Tainan County Council Speaker Wu Chien-bao (吳健保) and Councilor Lee Chuan-fu, meanwhile, have been indicted on bribery and theft for their alleged involvement in illegal quarrying.

The prosecution has recommended a four-years-and-two-month sentence for Wu and five years for Lee.

The prosecutors allege that Wu and Lee illegally quarried sand from the Tsengwen River (曾文溪) and earned more than NT$1 billion for selling the sand to construction companies.

The prosecutors said Wu ran the Tainan-based Fu-hsin Co, which won a public bid in March last year to dredge the river's channel.

They said the contract called for the company to quarry silt from the river and deepen its channel to 4m. However, Fu-hsin deepened the channel to 13m, and then sold the dredged sand to construction companies while partially filling the channel with earth from the riverbank. The prosecutors said illegal quarrying had severely damaged the environment and endangered bridges along the river.

They said Lee had cooperated with Wu on the sand scam.

Tainan City Council Vice Speaker Tseng Shun-liang (曾順良) was indicted for running illegal futures and liu ho tsai (六合彩), a popular gambling-lottery.

Prosecutors said Tseng also ran an illegal gambling operation that bet on professional baseball games.

Prosecutors have recommended a three-years-and-six-months term for Tseng.

Lee and Wu are both members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). All of the other politicians were elected as independents.