Hong Kong media tycoon Lim Por yen (林|坁Y), who was previously sentenced to three years and two months this February on charges of bribery, was yesterday handed a reduced prison sentence in Taiwan's High Court, due to what the court said was his full confession during the investigation into the case.
Lim, the former chairman of Asia Television Ltd and the chairman of the Lai Sun Group, was found guilty of giving an estimated NT$200 million to former Taipei County land official Chuang Yu-kun (
In addition to being convicted of malfeasance in accepting the bribe from Lim, Chuang was also found guilty of taking bribes from land owners who had sought Chuang's favor in approving the zoning of their land in Sanchih (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMESN
The high court sentenced Chuang to 20 years in prison, the maximum sentence available.
With his close connections to politicians and businessmen in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Lim's bribery scandal made headlines in both places when it broke in December 1997.
The high-profile scandal emerged when public prosecutors were investigating allegations of Chuang's corruption during his service at the Taipei County Government.
Prosecutors stumbled upon Chuang's connection to Lim and found that Chuang, after taking Lim's money, had used his position in the government to raise the amount of compensation to levy land which was owned by Lim in Sanhsia (
The court found that Lim's compensation of over NT$890 million was NT$300 million in excess of what he should have received.
After coming to Taiwan from Hong Kong to attend the Golden Horse movie award ceremonies, Lim was stopped by investigators at the CKS airport in Taoyuan while waiting to board his flight back to Hong Kong.
Though he was later released on NT$10 million bail, the octogenarian business tycoon was not allowed to leave the island until a ruling was handed down by the Taipei District Court this February.
Convicted on counts of giving bribes and laundering money through the land deals, Lim originally received a jail term of three years and two months in the district court ruling. After that, he was forced to pay an additional bail of NT$30 million before being allowed to leave the island for Hong Kong.
Though maintaining Lim's guilt on the two charges, the high court decided to cut one year of Lim's jail term yesterday on a legal provision that anyone convicted for giving bribes to a public official may have their punishment reduced for confessions given during investigations or trials.
Lim, who did not come to Taiwan to hear the ruling, spelled out his dissent at his conviction in Hong Kong yesterday.
"I did nothing wrong. I didn't bribe Chuang, who is only an acquaintance I met at several banquets," Lim said.
"The NT$200 million was given to Ho Chun-chang (|顜〝?, my special assistant, as commission, and not as a bribe to Chuang," said Lim's lawyer, Hsin Wu (辛武), outside the courtroom yesterday. He added they would definitely appeal the high court conviction.
"It is the huge amount of money that led to the guilty verdict. The court convicted Lim simply because he had received such a large amount of compensation from the government over the land levying project. But it is money he is entitled to, not money he conned from the Taiwan government," Hsin said.
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