Prosecutors and judicial investigation units raided food companies and a number of military logistics centers around the nation this week, detaining 13 naval personnel on corruption charges, in a probe that implicates at least 11 suppliers to the navy shady deals.
A spokesperson for the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday that the 13 suspects were alleged to have made deals with Hua Wang Food and other companies supplying meat and other foods to military bases and to the navy’s fleet.
According to the Chinese-language United Daily News, the navy suspects received up kickbacks of up to 20 percent of the contracts.
Media reports said that fleets at the nation’s three major naval bases — in Greater Kaohsiung’s Zouying (左營) port, Suao (蘇澳) of Yilan County and Keelung Harbor have been tied to the scandal.
The raids on Tuesday were led by Tsai Pei-jung (蔡佩容) and other prosecutors from Greater Tainan and more than 120 people took part.
Military logistic command centers at the three naval bases and the offices of four food supply companies were searched.
The investigators gathered more than 50 cartons of evidence in the form of account books, purchase orders, receipts, shipping and sale orders, while detaining a total of 31 suspects, including a number of officers in charge of food procurement for naval ships and employees of the four companies.
The highest ranking navy personnel detained is a chief petty officer with the Marine 66th Brigade.
After questioning by prosecutors, two Hua Wang Food employees, surnamed Liao (廖) and Hsu (許), admitted to paying bribes to naval procurement officers, starting in 2012.
Prosecutors said Liao and Hsu claimed to have paid between 15 to 20 percent of a purchase order’s total, and in some cases, officers received more than NT$200,000 in a singlekickback.
According to prosecutors, most of the detained navy personnel have admitted to receiving bribes.
Thirteen naval personnel, including ranking officers, were arraigned on corruption charges before being released on bail, with the bail amounts ranging from NT$15,000 to NT$200,000,
Liao was granted bail of NT$500,000, while Hsu’s bail was NT$100,000.
The navy procurement investigation began in April, after the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office detained three suspects in a meat scam.
A Greater Tainan-based company was found colluding with military personnel to sell meat products containing a water-retaining agent, which increases the weight of products and therefore increases the selling price, to military bases around the nation.
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