Military officers indicted for fraud

The Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office yesterday indicted 14 people, including officers from the Combined Services Forces (CSF, 聯勤總部), on fraud charges in a construction kickback scandal.

Prosecutors believe the CSF's construction bureau, the purchasing department of the Ministry of Defense, the RSEA Engineering Corporation (榮民工程公司) and contractors cooperated to fraudulently obtain NT$140 million in kickbacks, accepted sexual services and conspired to leak the details of initial construction bids to contractors.

District prosecutor Hsueh Chia (薛嘉洐) will initiate corruption charges against suspects Colonel Ku Kuo-fu (古國富), who was in charge of related business activities at the construction bureau, Lieutenant Colonel Lin Chih-ching (林志菁), deputy group leader Ou Ping-sheng (歐屏生), contractor Hsu Min-feng (許敏楓) and nine others.

The kickback scandal reaches far beyond private contractors and retired officers. It includes several current CSF officers with the rank of major and higher, and two other officers who are also being held.

Investigators have discovered that even officers charged with the responsibility of supervising the projects are involved. It is believed that they leaked details of the initial bids to contractor Hsu Min-feng and others. Military prosecutors are currently investigating the participation of serving officers.

Prosecutors say Wang Ke-chieh (王科傑) and Hsu Min-feng, respectively vice president and manager of Tai-yi (泰一), Tai-yu (泰諭) and other construction companies, as well as the contractors for dozens of other projects at the CSF's Shen-ying (神鷹) base, are suspected of joining with military personnel responsible for business management in order to fraudulently obtain project pre-payments of NT$140 million from the CSF through the use of forged documents.

During investigations in September of last year, investigators found that apart from having absconded with much of the construction money, Hsu Min-feng is suspected of having offered bribes to officials in charge, arranged for drinking sessions at hostess bars and sexual services for staff in charge of handling the case.

The bribes included money, mobile phones, banquets, commissions, free pleasure trips, sexual services from prostitutes and various other benefits, the investigators said.