A number of Taiwan's grand justices are billionaires, while several others have seen their family assets increase substantially over the past year, according to disclosure reports filed with the Control Yuan, the nation's top watchdog body.
The Control Yuan report shows that all grand justices have filed their assets disclosure reports for last year, with most doing well.
The report shows that Judicial Yuan President Weng Yueh-sheng (
He was one of the senior government officials who came under fire last year over alleged misuse of special allowance funds set aside for discretionary use. The asset disclosure report shows that Weng continued to deposit his special allowance fund into his bank account last year.
Over last year, Weng's state bond holdings decreased by more than NT$10 million, while his real estate holdings remained unchanged.
According to the report, Grand Justice Tseng You-tien (
Grand Justice Hsu Pi-hu (徐璧湖) also reported an enormous increase in family assets last year. In the 2005 report, Hsu had just NT$738,544 in bank deposits plus NT$102,181 in securities holdings. Last year, his bank deposit swelled to NT$5.67 million and his securities holdings also zoomed to NT$5.36 million.
Grand Justice Lai Ying-jaw (
Meanwhile, Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) is also a wealthy man, possessing a house and two plots of land in the US in addition to nearly NT$40 million in bank deposits and securities holdings.
Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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