Anti-graft drive targeting 921 earthquake profiteers

The nation's anti-graft drive has gained steam with a village chief jailed for life for profiting from funds earmarked for earthquake relief, a city mayor indicted and a county magistrate coming under investigation.

A district court sentenced Wu Chao-feng (吳朝豐), a village chief in the central county of Nantou, to life imprisonment for receiving kickbacks and making illicit profits from funds earmarked for victims of the devastating 1999 earthquake, a court spokesman said yesterday.

Wu was ordered to return NT$15 million (US$436,000) he pocketed from reconstruction projects.

He was also forced to pay a fine of NT$22 million, according to a copy of the verdict.

Nantou County was the epicenter of the quake measuring 7.6 on the open-ended Richter scale which hit the nation on Sept. 21, 1999.

The quake killed nearly 2,400 people and wrecked 50,000 buildings countrywide.

While the government grappled with major reconstruction needs, there have been widespread reports of misuse of relief goods and funds at the local level.

Nantou county magistrate Pang Pai-hsien (彭百顯) was indicted in January on charges of corruption and mishandling rebuilding funds. Pang, who is free on bail, has denied any wrongdoing.

The government of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), which took office in May last year, has put into place a crackdown on "black gold," or political corruption, some say to bolster the DPP's popularity.

Since assuming office, 163 elected officials and representatives, including six legislators, four mayors and magistrates, have been indicted on graft-related cases, the Ministry of Justice Web site showed.

On Thursday, prosecutors in the southern city of Tainan indicted Mayor George Chang (張燦鍙), 65, and recommended he be given a seven-year sentence in a land scandal.

It was the third corruption indictment for Chang, a member of President Chen Shui-bian's DPP. Chang is free on bail and has denied any wrongdoing in all three cases.

"Everyone supports the government's drive to combat black gold," an aide to Chang said by telephone, who refused to be identified. "But some prosecutors are abusing their power. They target famous people even without sufficient evidence."

In the outlying island of Kimen, county magistrate Chen Shui-tsai (陳水在) was questioned by prosecutors and detained briefly for his alleged role in a distillery scandal.

Chen was suspected of making illicit profits from a joint venture between the local government-run distillery and a private company.

"I still have faith in justice. [But] it's extremely unfair to me," Chen told reporters after being released on a NT$1.5 million bail early yesterday.

In Taiwan, defendants are not necessarily taken into custody until after final conviction by the Supreme Court.