Prosecutors have filed an application to freeze the assets of former Taoyuan County deputy commissioner Yeh Shih-wen (葉世文), along with the bank accounts and properties of his girlfriend, Chen Li-ling (陳麗玲), as a probe into corruption allegations continues.
Prosecutors said the move aimed to prevent Yeh and Chen from hiding or transferring their assets — allegedly illegally gained — to other accounts, as well as stopping their families and close associates from money-laundering.
Investigators found that Chen, Yeh’s girlfriend outside his marriage, had provided four personal bank accounts in which Yeh deposited various alleged bribery payments and laundered money.
After checking Yeh’s property declaration, required for public servants, from October last year, prosecutors said that he had listed an outstanding mortgage on one property of NT$16 million (US$533,000).
That amount matched the alleged NT$16 million bribe paid to Yeh by Farglory Land Development Co chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄).
Yeh previously headed up the Ministry of Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency (CPA), which was the central government’s department responsible for the nation’s major construction projects.
Prosecutors said it was widely suspected in political and business circles that when Yeh headed the agency, he and other officials were the recipients of bribes and kickbacks from developers and construction firms.
When Yeh was forced to retire from the CPA in July last year, investigators alleged that with his usual flow of bribe money stemmed, Yeh began demanding large lump sums in bribes from companies with property development projects in his post as Taoyuan County deputy commissioner.
When Yeh was forced to retire as CPA director-general, even though he had an inkling that the anti-corruption agency may be trailing him, he was confident that he had covered his tracks, so he continued to seek bribes from companies in return for project approvals, prosecutors said.
It has been reported that Yeh was appointed deputy to Taoyuan County Commissioner John Wu(吳志揚) to implement and fast-track Wu’s personal pet project — the Taoyuan Aerotropolis project — which has been valued at NT$2.4 trillion to develop 4,771 hectares of land.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS