Prosecutors said they plan to file additional requests for the seizure of assets on behalf of victims against property developer Lin Ming-hui (林明輝), after an investigation found that he owns 30 pieces of real-estate around Tainan.
Lin has been questioned in relation to the collapsed Weiguan Jinlong complex (維冠金龍大樓) in Tainan’s Yongkang District (永康) following last Saturday’s magnitude 6.4 earthquake.
The Tainan chapter of the Legal Aid Foundation said it is mobilizing lawyers to offer legal assistance, and will help the victims and their families to file a class-action lawsuit against Lin and other suspects involved in Weiguan Construction Co (維冠建設) projects.
Raids were conducted in several locations over the past few days by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, which said that Lin owns 30 properties around Tainan with an estimated value of more than NT$100 million (US$3.03 million).
However, most properties are allegedly registered in the names of Lin’s relatives.
The Tainan District Court had already approved a request to seize assets of up to NT$30 million from Lin and the two architects who worked on the Weiguan Jinlong complex, in addition to six other suspects associated with the case to prevent assets being liquidated during the investigation.
Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) on Friday said that he asked the city government’s legal counsels and prosecutors to file for the seizure of additional assets, after obtaining approval from the victims of the collapsed complex.
“The court has approved the seizure of assets up to NT$30 million; that was not enough. We must take into account the total number of fatalities and the financial loss incurred by the victims and their families,” Lai said.
Lai said the city government would help victims pay the NT$500,000 guarantee fee, which is required to file for freezing Lin’s assets.
The Legal Aid Foundation’s executive secretary in Tainan, Cho Ping-chung (卓平仲), said their lawyers have set up temporary offices at the main funeral parlor and also at the city government building to help victims and their families handle legal affairs.
Cho said that they plan to file a class-action lawsuit against Lin and the two architects.
Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Chen Chien-hung (陳建弘) said investigators carried out a second search at Lin’s residence to gather more evidence and that other suspects, along with four witnesses associated with the case, have been summoned for questioning in the past few days.
The focus of the investigation was to examine property registration and other business documents to find all the land development projects that Lin had been involved in.
Lin has changed his name several times and has also registered different business, Chen said.
Prosecutors allege that Lin aims to reap large profits from property buyers, then delists his company or declares bankruptcy after the completion of a development project to evade legal responsibility and hide money from buyers seeking compensation.
Prosecutors said Lin then registers a new company name to begin another project.
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
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai