The Taipei District Court yesterday found two former Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems (DORTS) officials guilty of corruption and sentenced them to jail terms in a case that dates back to 2006.
Former DORTS development branch director Kao Chia-nung (高嘉濃) was given a 10-year sentence, while former DORTS section chief Wang Ming-tsang (王銘藏) received a four-year sentence for influence peddling over the MRT Xiaobitan Station development project, also known as the MeHAS City (美河市) project.
The project in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) was jointly developed by DORTS and Radium Life Tech Co (日勝生).
Photo: Chung Hung-liang, Taipei Times
Last year, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Kao and Wang on charges related to influence peddling and document forgery in a case that it said had cost the Taipei City Government more than NT$2 billion (US$60.57 million) in losses.
DORTS was accused of forging a property valuation that allowed Radium Life to inflate its estimates, while the city government’s estimates were deflated.
The Taipei District Court found Kao guilty of forging the valuation and passing it on to his subordinate Wang, thus costing the city government an estimated NT$590 million in losses and channeling significant profits to Radium Life.
Kao pleaded not guilty, saying Wang was the one who submitted the property valuation.
Wang pleaded guilty and gave testimony that the court found to be consistent with other testimony and evidence presented in the case.
Kao was also deprived of his civil rights for six years, while Wang was given a two-year suspension of his civil rights. The verdict can be appealed in a higher court.
The court’s decision is just the beginning of a long process, as the city would be busy tidying up after the ruling, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said, noting how much the city had been ordered to pay in compensation on account of a Council of Grand Justices interpretation.
The city is also left with the problem of how to handle Radium Life’s exaggeration of the amount of land it could develop, he added.
A lawsuit was filed early this year by more than 100 landowners seeking a constitutional interpretation that would judge that the expropriation of land had infringed upon the public’s property rights.
The Council of Grand Justices on Sept. 26 ruled that the expropriation was unconstitutional.
The area in the application submitted by Radium Life was 8,666 ping (28,647m2) larger than the actual area that had been expropriated, the ruling said.
DORTS Joint Development Division Acting Director Wei Kuo-hua (魏國華) said the city government also faces another arbitration court case involving Radium Life Tech Co, over the reassessment of the MeHAS City development’s benefits and rights distributions.
The city wants Radium to return NT$7.79 billion for its overestimation of the area of the development, while the company is petitioning the government to return its guarantee of NT$3.5 billion.
The city government suspended arbitration efforts until Jan. 29 and has threatened to sue Radium Life for fraud.
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