Taoyuan County deputy commissioner Yeh Shih-wen (葉世文) was sacked from his job yesterday over allegations of bribery involving Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄), as prosecutors questioned 17 people, including the pair.
After Yeh was brought to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning at noon, the Taoyuan County Government announced at 3:30pm that County Commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) had decided to remove Yeh from office.
As of press time, both Yeh and Chao were being questioned.
Photo: CNA
Prosecutors reportedly seized NT$10 million (US$332,000) in cash during a raid of Yeh’s residence and office, allegedly from Farglory Land Development in connection with a bid for the government’s affordable housing project.
Prosecutors said they recently received a tip that Yeh rigged the bidding process to help the construction company secure the affordable housing project in Bade City (八德).
The contract was part of the Executive Yuan’s policy to help first-time homebuyers and poor people buy an apartment at a reasonable price.
Farglory Land Development allegedly had Tsai Jen-hui (蔡仁惠), a professor of architecture at National Taipei University of Technology, act as its “white gloves” to facilitate the bribes, whereby the money was given to Yeh from a third party, and not directly from the company, according to a United Daily Evening News report.
More than 100 officers at the Ministry of Justice’s Agency Against Corruption and prosecutors raided 20 firms and offices of the related parties in connection with the case in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan County at about 7am, prosecutors said.
The raids continued until 4:30pm.
Based on what was found during the raids, pending further investigation into the seized cash and other people involved, prosecutors said Yeh could face felony bribery charges under the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
Prosecutors declined to comment on Chao’s involvement in the case.
The 66-year-old Yeh was invited by Wu to be his deputy in July last year after Yeh retired from public service.
Prior to his retirement, he was director-general of the Construction and Planning Agency at the Ministry of the Interior.
Wu had said he wished to draw on Yeh’s experience to assist the government in carrying out the Taoyuan Aerotropolis project, urban planning and affordable housing projects.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
SECOND SPEECH: All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist the CCP, despite their differences, the president said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday discussed how pro-Taiwan and pro-Republic of China (ROC) groups can agree to maintain solidarity on the issue of protecting Taiwan and resisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The talk, delivered last night at Taoyuan’s Hakka Youth Association, was the second in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. Citing Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) slogan that solidarity brings strength, Lai said it was a call for political parties to find consensus amid disagreements on behalf of bettering the nation. All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist
By refusing to agree spending increases to appease US President Donald Trump, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threatened to derail a summit that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte needs to run smoothly for the sake of the military alliance’s future survival. Ahead of yesterday’s gathering in The Hague, Netherlands, things were going off the rails. European officials have expressed irritation at the spoiler role that Sanchez is playing when their No. 1 task is to line up behind a pledge to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Rutte needed to keep Spain in line while preventing others such as Slovakia
RSS