Real-estate developer Radium Life Tech Co (日勝生) will be targeted if it refuses to turn over money owed to the city for the MeHAS City (美河市) project corruption case, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said in an interview late on Wednesday night.
“Be good and return the money owed to the city. If you resist, I will put aside [other corruption cases] to concentrate on yours,” Ko said in an interview with the talk show This Is It (關鍵時刻) on the Eastern Broadcasting Co (東森電視) channel.
Ko estimated that the firm short-changed the city by NT$7.6 billion (US$239.1 million) when the project was constructed.
Photo: Weng Yu-huang, Taipei Times
The MeHAS City project was constructed between 2007 and 2012 by Radium in conjunction with the Taipei City Department of Rapid Transit Systems (DORTS), encompassing 9.3 hectares of homes, offices and stores in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店), next to the Xiaobitan (小碧潭) MRT station.
Under charges filed by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office in 2013, former DORTS officials face accusations of forging the cost estimates used to apportion project profits to inflate Radium’s share, underestimating the city’s costs while overestimating Radium’s contribution. The project has also been subject to controversy for allegedly allowing land designated for the MRT station to be turned over to a private developer.
In response to Ko’s comments, Radium yesterday said that it had signed a legal contract with the city and was not responsible for the price estimates that were drafted by city itself. It added that the dispute had already entered arbitration under an agreement signed in 2013 and urged the mayor to not “prejudge” the case and respect the legal process, while asking for an opportunity for company representatives to meet with the mayor to explain the firm’s position.
In the interview, Ko brushed aside questions of whether he would be powerless to do anything if no problems were found with firm’s contract, saying he was sure new discoveries would be made if all related documents were rigorously examined.
Ko has promised to declassify all documentation related to the case for perusal by city councilors and the public.
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