Taipei prosecutors yesterday said they would open a new investigation into the 1999 Taiwan Pineapple scandal, in which the company's chairman and several members of the judiciary were accused of speculating in the company's stock.
Prosecutors yesterday said they would look into claims by owner of the Huang Lung Investment Co., Huang Jen-chung (黃任中), that judicial officials had asked for NT$100 million in exchange for dropping their investigation.
Huang made the claims in Wednesday's edition of Open Weekly magazine.
Shih Mao-lin (施茂林), head prosecutor at the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office, ordered prosecutor Lee Chia-ming (李嘉明) to lead the probe.
Huang said he refused to pay the NT$100 million.
He was indicted in February 2000, and he claimed that the case has yet to come to trial.
Prosecutors yesterday said they would also look into why the probe into the Taiwan Pineapple scandal has failed to make it to court.
Huang said in the interview that several people had called him, demanded money and led him to believe that his failure to pay would result in his being indicted.
"In the end more than 20 people were indicted, including me, just because I refused to pay," he said.
"I received several calls from different people who claimed to be Taipei prosecutors, judges or investigators. They all demanded the same thing -- money."
Huang said the callers made threats, "leading me to believe that they were people who would have an important bearing on the case."
But two years after his indictment, "the case hasn't come to trial yet," he said.
Lee promised yesterday to give Huang's allegations a full investigation.
Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) said he would not tolerate corruption among prosecutors and investigators.
"I don't believe that such a thing would happen in the ministry," Chen said. "I have sent a direct order for the case to be reinvestigated and for Huang's extortion allegations to be investigated. If they're true, I'm afraid that the prosecutors or investigators will not only lose their jobs but also face the most severe punishment because such behavior is contemptible."
Liu Shou-sung (劉壽嵩), spokesman for the Taipei District Court, said prosecutors would prove Huang's allegations false.
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