Taoyuan County deputy commissioner Yeh Shih-wen (葉世文) was sacked from his job yesterday over allegations of bribery involving Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄), as prosecutors questioned 17 people, including the pair.
After Yeh was brought to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning at noon, the Taoyuan County Government announced at 3:30pm that County Commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) had decided to remove Yeh from office.
As of press time, both Yeh and Chao were being questioned.
Photo: CNA
Prosecutors reportedly seized NT$10 million (US$332,000) in cash during a raid of Yeh’s residence and office, allegedly from Farglory Land Development in connection with a bid for the government’s affordable housing project.
Prosecutors said they recently received a tip that Yeh rigged the bidding process to help the construction company secure the affordable housing project in Bade City (八德).
The contract was part of the Executive Yuan’s policy to help first-time homebuyers and poor people buy an apartment at a reasonable price.
Farglory Land Development allegedly had Tsai Jen-hui (蔡仁惠), a professor of architecture at National Taipei University of Technology, act as its “white gloves” to facilitate the bribes, whereby the money was given to Yeh from a third party, and not directly from the company, according to a United Daily Evening News report.
More than 100 officers at the Ministry of Justice’s Agency Against Corruption and prosecutors raided 20 firms and offices of the related parties in connection with the case in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan County at about 7am, prosecutors said.
The raids continued until 4:30pm.
Based on what was found during the raids, pending further investigation into the seized cash and other people involved, prosecutors said Yeh could face felony bribery charges under the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
Prosecutors declined to comment on Chao’s involvement in the case.
The 66-year-old Yeh was invited by Wu to be his deputy in July last year after Yeh retired from public service.
Prior to his retirement, he was director-general of the Construction and Planning Agency at the Ministry of the Interior.
Wu had said he wished to draw on Yeh’s experience to assist the government in carrying out the Taoyuan Aerotropolis project, urban planning and affordable housing projects.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS