KMT Legislator Gary Wang (
Eleven defendants were also called at the committal proceedings yesterday to state whether they had been involved in the multi-million land deals -- one made in 1998 and the other in 1999.
Informed of the charges against him -- breach of trust, forgery and tampering with accounting records -- Wang, chairman of Eastern Multimedia and also chairman of the General Chamber of Commerce of the ROC (
The heir to the Rebar Group denied that he had inflated the price of a plot of land in Yangmei township, Taoyuan County, and obtained millions of dollars in under-the-table profits through the resale of the land, measured approximately 75,000m2.
Tsai, also appearing in yesterday's pre-trial procedure, denied the allegations that he had helped facilitate the land transactions between Wang's company and the state-run Taiwan Development and Trust Corp (TDTC,
Tsai, who plans to run in the December legislative elections, also urged the presiding judge Chu Meng-ping (
Chu did not respond to Tsai's request.
Prosecutors from the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office said that the case involved two stages: the sale and then the purchase of land in Yangmei. During each stage, under-the-table deals between the two sides inflated the price of the land to create illegal profits.
According to prosecutors, the listed Far Eastern Silo and Shipping (FESS,
The prosecution said that around NT$189 million of the price difference found its way through several dummy accounts into the accounts of another company owned by Wang. Chu's company also made NT$55 million from the artificially raised price.
The prosecution said this was a conspiracy in which Wang, Chu and two others squeezed money out of FESS and its shareholders. FESS intended to build a villa complex on the land, but due to the continuing decline in real estate prices, Wang then sought, after partially developing it, to sell it off for NT$1.8 billion to the state-run TDTC, also a listed company.
According to the indictment, Wang asked his close aide Chou Chi-peng (
Wang then asked Tsai Hau a board member of TDTC and Kao Chien-wen (高建文), the vice chairman, to push the board to make a decision to buy the land in November 1999. The move came hot on the heels of a report conducted by TDTC only a month earlier which concluded that such an investment was not worthwhile.
The prosecution has asked for a jail term of four years, 10 months for Wang and three years for Tsai. The trial is scheduled to begin on July 18.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique