The Taipei City Government could annul the Taipei Arena contract with scandal-ridden Eastern Multimedia Group (EMG,
The contract for running operations of the arena is among the bribery scandals that have been plaguing Wang and his corporation.
Prosecutors have questioned former Taipei City Sports Department director Liu Jia-Tseng (劉家增), who allegedly accepted Wang's bribe and helped the group obtain the contract.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday the city government would form a special committee to review the contract, promising to continue the operation of the arena in spite of the scandal.
Hau also requested that Taipei City's Department of Government Ethics look into issues including the arena's bidding process and the credentials of the companies that bid for the contract.
"We will clarify the legal issues regarding the contract ... [But] the city government will not allow Taipei Arena to stop operations," he said yesterday.
The Taipei City Sports Department made a call for tenders for the nine-year operation of Taipei Arena in 2005 under former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) administration.
Ma refused to comment on the scandal yesterday.
"The contract was handled by the Taipei City Sports Department. I have little understanding of how the bidding was processed ... The scandal is now under investigation," Ma said.
Hau defended Ma by arguing that the Taipei City Department of Government Ethics had been investigating Liu's involvement in the case when Ma was mayor and it had taken the initiative to send the case to prosecutors this year.
Meanwhile, Taipei prosecutors summoned Eastern TV general manager Chang Shu-sen (張樹森) and 10 EMG officials for questioning yesterday as part of the ongoing investigation into EMG activities.
"We summoned 11 individuals today, but only seven reported to the investigators," Taipei District Prosecutors' Office spokesman Lin Jinn-tsun (
Chang was released late last night on bail of NT$300,000 after several hours of questioning.
Prosecutors have said that so far 12 individuals linked to the EMG investigation have been barred from leaving the country.
EMG chairman Gary Wang was detained by the Taipei District Court on Sunday after Taipei prosecutors succeeded in annulling a Taipei District Court ruling the day before that freed Wang on NT$100 million bail.
Prosecutors now suspect Tsai Hsueh-ching (
Lin requested yesterday that Tsai return to Taiwan to explain herself to prosecutors.
Chang was questioned mainly about his handling of the payments made to Tsai, Lin said.
Prosecutors began questioning Wang and some of his associates last week in relation to four cases after a series of raids at EMG offices and properties belonging to Wang.
The first case concerns allegations that Wang illegally sold the group's stock at an abnormally low price.
The second alleges he stole NT$27.2 billion from Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom Co (
In the third case, prosecutors allege that Wang tried to avoid paying taxes by selling one of the group's properties to Union Insurance Co (
Prosecutors also suspect he may have bribed Taipei City Government officials to win the contract to operate the Taipei Arena for nine years.
Wang is the son of Wang You-theng (
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