The Hsinchu District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it has launched an investigation into the awarding of two military village development projects and a Hsinchu City Government urban renewal project to Farglory Land Development Co.
Farglory Group chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄) was detained on Monday last week over allegations that he bribed former Taoyuan County deputy commissioner Yeh Shih-wen (葉世文) to secure a NT$1.3 billion (US$43.3 million) contract to build the country’s largest affordable housing project in Bade City (八德).
When the news broke, the Ministry of National Defense said that the Ministry of Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency had released tendering on 52 military village projects for reconstruction and development, five of which were won by Farglory.
According to the Hsinchu District Prosecutors’ Office, Farglory secured two military village development tenders in the county two years ago. Yeh was the agency’s director-general at the time. A city government urban renewal project near Hsinchu Rail Station was also won by Farglory, it said.
Prosecutors have seized documents relating to the three cases, the office said.
Media reported yesterday that Hsinchu Mayor Hsu Ming-tsai (許明財) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who is visiting the US, has decided to cut short his trip to clarify the awarding of the city council’s project. Hsu is seeking re-election in November.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
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