The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday apologized over a case of alleged bribery involving several senior military officers accused of buying their positions and offered a NT$10 million (US$300,000) reward for information that helps solve the case.
“On behalf of the MND, I apologize to the public,” Deputy Minister of National Defense Huang Yi-bing (黃奕炳) said during a press conference at the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) yesterday afternoon.
Huang led a group of military prosecutors and investigators to a meeting with MOJ officials, where they held a joint press conference to announce a newly established special task force consisting of military and justice officials who would investigate the case, which is now being handled by the Banciao District Prosecutors’ Office.
“In addition to the current bribery case, members of the task force will investigate all kinds of potential bribery cases and scandals that concern the military,” Huang said.
“While we continue our investigation, we are also urging the public to offer secret tips. We are offering a NT$10 million reward for relevant information,” Huang said.
Huang said MOJ Department of Prosecution Director Chen Wen-chi (陳文琪) chaired the meeting. He was joined by Banciao District Prosecutors’ Office chief Wu Shen-chih (吳慎志), Special Investigation Panel (SIP) spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南), SIP prosecutors Chiang Kuei-chang (姜貴昌) and Cheng Fu-ming (鄭富銘), and MND Department of Justice Director Hsu Ching-chiang (許慶瑲).
While investigating bribery claims against businessman Lin Chih-chung (林治崇) and his alleged accomplices in a case related to the senior military officers, Banciao prosecutors discovered another group of alleged conspirators that was similar to Lin’s group.
Prosecutors interviewed four of them and released three on bail yesterday.
“The leader of the ring is Chou Chih-kang (周志鋼),” Banciao District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Cheng Hsin-hung (鄭鑫宏) said yesterday.
Prosecutors said they were able to identify Chou and his alleged accomplices because they were very close to Lin, with whom they shared military contacts and information, although they never worked on the same military bids.
Prosecutors have yet to interview Chou. After they talked to four of Chou’s alleged accomplices, they released a man surnamed Chen, whose first name was not made public, while Shih Yun-chung (施允中), Tseng Tse-hung (曾澤弘) and Wei Mao-chou (魏茂洲) were released on NT$100,000 bail.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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