The Taiwan High Court yesterday overturned a district court’s decision to release Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄) on bail, and ordered a new bail hearing to decide on whether to detain Chao in the investigation of allegations that he bribed a Taoyuan County official in connection with a development project.
The judges summoned Chao and Farglory manager Wei Chun-hsiung (魏春雄) to attend a hearing at 8:30pm and the hearing was still on going as press time last night.
The hearing followed the High Court’s decision earlier yesterday which, in response to an appeal filed by prosecutors, sent the matter back to the Taipei District Court, saying the lower court’s decision on Saturday to release Chao and Wei on bail was not well-grounded.
The high court said that the sum of NT$5 million (US$166,400) set as bail for Chao and NT$1 million for Wei were not enough to prevent them from fleeing the country.
The high court added that Chao called a meeting to discuss the matter with his executives after being released on bail on Saturday, suggesting that they might have an intention to conspire to pervert the course of justice.
Chao is being investigated on allegations of paying a bribe of NT$16 million, via an intermediary, Tsai Jen-hui (蔡仁惠), a retired professor, to then-Taoyuan County deputy commissioner Yeh Shih-wen (葉世文) to win a local government building contract.
Yeh previously served as director-general of the Construction and Planning Agency (CPA)
In the investigation, Tsai and Yeh — who was dismissed from his position as Taoyuan county deputy commissioner after prosecutors on Friday raided his office and residence as part of an investigation into the possible corruption — were both taken into custody on Saturday.
In the Friday morning raids, investigators seized NT$17 million in cash from Yeh’s home in Taipei and about NT$1.12 million in cash from his office in the county government.
Tsai allegedly picked up the money from a Farglory office in Taipei under instruction from Chao and Wei, investigators said.
Farglory secured the affordable housing project in Bade (八德) with a bid of NT$1.3 billion and on May 8 signed a contract with the county government.
Prosecutors said that they are investigating another case of suspected corruption allegedly involving Yeh.
Investigators said that during questioning, Tsai accused Chao of bribing Yeh to obtain another government housing project in New Taipei City’s Linkou (林口) in 2012, when Yeh was director-general of the Ministry of the Interior’s CPA.
Meanwhile, in response to the alleged bribery case, Minister of the Interior Chen Wen-jen (陳威人) said yesterday that the ministry would launch a probe into development projects handled by Yeh during his term as the head of the CPA.
“During Yeh’s term as the CPA’s director-general, he has handled several projects, including the construction of social housing complexes in Fujhou (浮洲) region and in Banciao (板橋) and Linkou districts in New Taipei City,” Chen said. “I have ordered a probe into those projects and will not hesitate to refer the case to the judiciary if anything illegal is discovered.”
Amber Shyu (徐玉紅), a resident of the Linkou project site who has been resisting forced eviction for nearly a decade, said she hopes investigators will work independently to dig out unlawful conduct involved in the project, so that the people can live happily and peacefully in their homes.
“If there are no greedy officials, corporations will not be able to do anything they want using money, and there would not be so many innocent people forced out of their homes and villages wiped out from the map,” she said.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘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
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS