A retired lieutenant-general and 11 businessmen were indicted on charges of bribery and blackmail, court officials said yesterday.
Prosecutors at the Banciao District Prosecutors’ Office on Monday sought a jail term of 22 years for former lieutenant-general Yuan Hsiao-lung (袁肖龍) on charges of accepting bribes, blackmail and leaking secrets.
Yuan is accused of trying to obtain a promotion by bribing his superiors through middleman Lin Chih-chung (林治崇), who headed the group of businessmen who were indicted on suspicion that they won military contracts after bribing military officers with cash and prostitutes.
“Yuan believed Lin could help him get promoted,” said Cheng Hsin-hung (鄭鑫宏), spokesman for the Banciao District Prosecutors’ Office.
The 59-year-old Yuan allegedly paid part of the money to Lin, but never got his promotion. Yuan retired on July 1 last year.
The Banciao prosecutors’ indictment said that Lin was acquainted with former chief of general staff Huo Shou-yeh (霍守業).
Cheng said that Lin showed Yuan a “recommendation letter” from then-Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). Cho, however, told prosecutors that he never wrote such a letter for Yuan. The Presidential Office also said there was no record of such a letter.
The Ministry of National Defense said in a press release yesterday that there was no evidence that Huo was connected to the case.
In a related ongoing case, three colonels were indicted in January on charges of accepting bribes and sexual services paid for by Lin.
Military prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Colonel Yang Tung-shan (楊東山) for allegedly taking NT$8.1 million (US$242,000) in bribes from bidders for military contracts, 51 years for Colonel Chung Yung-hsiang (鍾永祥) for accepting NT$2.15 million in bribes and 12 years for Colonel Wang Tsung-teh (王宗德).
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