Taipei prosecutors yesterday searched Radium Life Tech Co and questioned the company’s officials in an investigation into alleged corruption related to the Xiaobitan MRT Station joint development project.
Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Huang Mou-hsin (黃謀信) said investigators raided four locations, including the offices of Radium Life Tech Co and residence of the company chairman Lin Jung-Hsien (林榮顯), and questioned five company officials.
He added that prosecutors seized a number of documents related to a contract the company signed with the Taipei City Government in 2006.
The Taipei District Court on Dec. 25 last year granted a request by the district prosecutors’ office to detain two former Taipei City Department of Rapid Transit Systems (DORTS) officials. Former director of the DORTS’ development branch Kao Chia-nung (高嘉濃) and former DORTS section head Wang Ming-tsang (王銘藏) have been detained to prevent collusion on testimony.
Two other DORTS officials were released on NT$100,000 bail.
In 2006, the department and Radium Life Tech Co signed a contract to jointly carry out the development project, also known as the MeHAS City (美河市) project, in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Xindian District (新店).
The project sits on 9.3 hectares of land along the Xiaobitan riverside and is valued at NT$30 billion (US$1 billion).
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said the department is suspected of forging a property value estimation document to underestimate the Taipei City Government’s stake in the construction project and overestimate Radium Life’s stake, which cost the city government an estimated NT$10 billion in losses, and might have profited the company more than NT$380 million.
The MeHAS City project began in 2006, when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was Taipei mayor.
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