The Taipei District Court has ordered a former senior engineer from the Taipei Water Department to be held incommunicado for his role in the ongoing Jin-Wen financial scandal.
Prosecutors suspect that senior engineer Huang Hsin-yi (黃心怡) illegally built water pipes for the Jin-Wen Institute of Technology and Ta Hsueh Shih Hsiang, a villa community built by a construction firm belonging to the Jin-Wen Group.
The illegally built pipes, they say, have deprived tens of thousands of local residents of water at peak hours for a decade.
Five Taipei Water officials have been questioned by prosecutors since Thursday in connection with the scandal, including Huang and his superior, former chief engineer Liao Tsung-sheng (
The prosecutors released Liao and the other three early yesterday morning but recommended that the court detain Huang. The court approved the prosecutors' request in the afternoon.
According to prosecutors, two large water pipes were built to distribute water directly from the Ankeng (
During peak hours, the illegal pipes leave tens of thousands of Ankeng residents suffering water shortages.
Prosecutors said the Jin-Wen Group had bypassed the normal procedure for applying for water supplies.
The group should have applied to Taipei Water's district business office, but instead contacted the construction corps headed by Liao in 1992.
The construction corps had no right to review or approve any application, but it arbitrarily approved Jin-Wen's application and carried out the construction, prosecutors said.
But Liao and Huang both denied any wrongdoing during questioning.
According to the prosecution, after building the pipes the construction corps did not charge Jin-Wen a fee -- a breach of the regulations.
Investigators' findings indicate that construction of the pipes cost tens of millions of dollars and was carried out at the expense of Taipei Water.
The prosecutors, however, declined to comment as to whether Huang or any Taipei Water officials had taken bribes from the Jin-Wen Group.
Liao also owns a house at Ta Hsueh Shih Hsiang. Prosecutors are investigating whether the house might have been a gift from the Jin-Wen Group.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
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
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft