Sat, Aug 31, 2024 page1

• Ko questioned over Core Pacific

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was questioned by prosecutors yesterday over suspected involvement in a corruption scandal related to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) development project during his tenure as Taipei mayor.

  Ko’s home and office were also searched in the morning, along with TPP headquarters.

  Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), chairman of Core Pacific Group (威京集團), which was in charge of the property development project, have been detained and held incommunicado since Thursday evening and early yesterday respectively.

  

  Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je, center, gestures to reporters gathered outside his home in Taipei yesterday morning.

  Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

  Ying’s assistant Wu Shun-min (吳順民) was also being held in detention and incommunicado.

  Prosecutors yesterday also questioned former Taipei deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲) as a suspect and searched his home and office.

  Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), and Pong’s wife were also questioned as witnesses.

  As of press time last night, Ko, Pong and his wife were still being questioned at the Agency Against Corruption, while Chen, who had been transferrd to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, was released after questioning.

  Prosecutors launched a search of Ko’s residence at about 7:39am.

  The search of the TPP headquarters only covered Ko’s office, prosecutors said, adding that he cooperated throughout the process.

  The TPP said they did not know why the search was necessary, but pledged to cooperate.

  The party’s Central Committee convened a special meeting and established an emergency task force to deal with the fallout of the crisis, party representatives told a news conference in Taipei.

  The TPP is united in solidarity with Ko and will fight to defend his innocence, they said.

  Law enforcement authorities failed to demonstrate sufficient cause or evidence to justify the morning’s high-profile raid on the offices of a major political party, TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said.

  The credibility of the nation’s justice system would be cast into doubt if the prosecutors are found to have worked with political forces to incriminate Ko, he said, urging the government to explain the situation.

  The investigation into the development of Core Pacific City, also known as Living Mall, started amid suspicion about the sharp increase in the floor area ratio from 560 percent to 840 percent during Ko’s tenure as mayor from 2014 to 2022.

  The floor area ratio refers to the ratio of a building’s total floor area to the size of the parcel of land upon which it is built.

  Ko, Ying, Sheen, Wu and several others were named as suspects in the case in May.

  Pong earlier this month was prohibited by prosecutors from leaving the country and changing residence after being questioned.

  Core Pacific Group was found to have given more than NT$40 million (US$1.25 million) to Ying as part of its efforts to lobby the Taipei City Government to raise the floor area ratio, prosecutors said.

  In February 2020, Sheen, via an introduction by Ying, also visited Pong several times, asking for the floor area ratio to be increased, they said.

  Prosecutors on Tuesday arrested Ying, who was said to be preparing to leave Taiwan.

  On Wednesday, prosecutors summoned Sheen and raided the Core Pacific Group’s headquarters and the Taipei City Council before seeking court orders to detain Ying, Sheen, Wu and several others.

  Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsin
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