Former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世) is to serve two years in prison, after the Supreme Court yesterday upheld an earlier conviction against him for “holding properties of unknown origin.”
Lin, 49, must also pay a fine of NT$15.8 million (US$514,156).
However, judges ordered that the charges against him for “receiving bribes in breach of official duties,” under the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) be sent back to the Taiwan High Court for a retrial.
In the second ruling on the case in February 2016, the High Court handed Lin a two-year jail sentence regarding the properties and a 12-year sentence for receiving bribes, which the judges decided to combine into a sentence of 13 years and six months.
Both the defense and prosecution appealed the ruling.
Lin represented the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in Kaohsiung and served as a KMT legislator for four terms from 1998. He was a part of then-party chairman Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inner circle.
At the start of his second term as president in 2012, Ma promoted Lin to Executive Yuan secretary-general.
Investigators found that when Lin was a KMT legislator in 2010, he had helped Kaohsiung-based Ti Yung Co secure a slag treatment contract from CHC Resources, a subsidiary of state-owned China Steel Corp in exchange for NT$63 million from Ti Yung owner Chen Chi-hsiang (陳啟祥).
Chen made an audio recording of the conversation with Lin, which was presented as evidence.
In 2012, while Lin was Executive Yuan secretary-general, he demanded NT$83 million from Chen to assist in securing a contract extension for Ti Yung.
Chen refused to pay and again taped the conversation to present to prosecutors.
In the recording, Lin was heard asking Chen to pay the bribe in “three, three, 23,” meaning three payments of NT$30 million, NT$30 million and NT$23 million, prosecutors said.
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