The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld the conviction on corruption charges of former Legislative Yuan secretary-general Lin Hsi-shan (林錫山), handing him a 15-year prison sentence and revoking his civil rights for five years in the second ruling in the case.
The terms were slightly reduced from the first ruling by the Taipei District Court in May last year, which sentenced Lin to 16 years in prison and revoked his civil rights for six years.
Lin was an important member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the Legislative Yuan. He served as legislator for three terms from 1990 to 1999, before being named secretary-general, a post he held until 2016.
The court in a statement said that Lin was found guilty on eight counts of taking bribes and kickbacks, and possession of assets of unknown origin.
Investigators said that Lin’s assets swelled while he served as secretary-general, but that he failed to explain the origin of at least NT$240.78 million (US$8.256 million at the current exchange rate).
The court ordered the confiscation of assets worth NT$268.78 million that it deemed illegal profits, of which Lin reportedly handed NT$133.46 million in cash and real estate to the court as guarantees.
The court said evidence suggests that Lin on eight separate occasions accepted NT$39.5 million in kickbacks and bribes from Lee Pao-cheng (李保承), the owner of contractor Far Net Technologies Co.
“Lin’s actions tarnished the civil service, including staff working under him, as they had to follow the orders from above,” the court said in its ruling. “He also could not clarify the questionable origin of his large and newly accumulated assets, severely damaging the image of government bureaucrats.”
Investigators said that Lin instructed his subordinate Chen Liang-yin (陳亮吟) to collude with Far Net Technologies by leaking the details of requirements in tenders to rig bids for projects including a new computer system, software upgrades and installation of digital communication hardware at the legislature.
Records showed that Far Net Technologies won 23 public tenders for telecommunications and computer system upgrades at the legislature from 2012 to 2015, investigators said.
Meanwhile, the court also upheld the guilty verdict for Lee, who has been sentenced to 30 months in prison
Chen was in May last year found guilty, and handed a six-month suspended prison sentence and 90 hours of community service.
Three employees of the section in charge of computer networks and telecommunications at the legislature were yesterday acquitted, reversing guilty verdicts in the first ruling.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS