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.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the