Taichung District Prosecutors' Office (台中地檢署) has indicted 29 people working in 20 different construction companies, for alleged attempts to skim more than NT$38 million in earthquake reconstruction funds by rigging the bid on a project being undertaken in central Taiwan.
The recent indictment is the first case against suspected gangsters trying to profit through the ongoing reconstruction efforts.
Prosecutors have charged 51-year-old Chen Chen-jung (陳振榮) and 28 others with violating Taiwan's Government Procurement Law and the blanket Anti-Hooligan Law, and are asking for sentences as high as four years in prison if the defendants are found guilty.
Previously a member of an organized crime group based in Taichung County, Chen is suspected of bullying other construction companies into joint ventures to win the bid, and then asking for a 20 percent kickback from subcontracting firms.
Chen and the other suspects won the bid for a construction project near Tahsueh Mountain (大雪山) in Taichung County earlier this year for NT$190 million. Their winning bid was canceled after officials suspected corruption.
A second round of bidding announced through the Internet netted a winning bid of NT$138 million for the same project, leading officials to claim they prevented losses of more than NT$52 million.
The earthquake caused land-slides on Tahsueh Mountain and badly damaged the highway. The reconstruction project was listed as a priority for the area.
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RULES BROKEN: The MAC warned Chinese not to say anything that would be harmful to the autonomous status of Taiwan or undermine its sovereignty A Chinese couple accused of disrupting a pro-democracy event in Taipei organized by Hong Kong residents has been deported, the National Immigration Agency said in a statement yesterday afternoon. A Chinese man, surnamed Yao (姚), and his wife were escorted by immigration officials to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where they boarded a flight to China before noon yesterday, the agency said. The agency said that it had annulled the couple’s entry permits, citing alleged contraventions of the Regulations Governing the Approval of Entry of People of the Mainland Area into the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民進入台灣地區許可辦法). The couple applied to visit a family member in
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