1. Chang Wan-li's (
Chang is accused of stealing an estimated NT$200 million from the institute in tuition fees and Ministry of Education subsidies. The investigation force alleges Chang stole the funds by giving his other businesses contracts for the construction of the Jin-Wen Institute and purchasing these projects at inflated prices.
Prosecutors say they have established most of the facts about this part of the scandal and that Chang could be charged for breach of trust, misappropriation and forgery.
Chang was known to have been in financial difficulties after suffering heavy losses in an investment in Vietnam.
2. Chang's possible complicity with Ministry of Education officials.
Prosecutors suspect that Chang bribed ministry officials in return for the ministry's approval of Jin-Wen Institute development projects and subsidies for the institute to carry out construction.
The ministry has the power to decide whether or not to approve and fund the construction projects of higher education institutes, and it has been reported that the ministry's decisions are very much affected by under-the-table deals.
Prosecutors have also said that to borrow money from banks, the institute needed endorsements from the ministry.
3. Chang's possible complicity with officials of Taipei City's Education Bureau.
Jin-Wen Senior High School (景文高中) is supervised by the city's education bureau. Prosecutors suspect that the bureau has, for example, unlawfully favored the school by approving its establishment of a junior high school.
4. Chang's alleged illegal loans from state-run or private financial institutions.
Total bad debts Chang and the Jin-Wen Group have left to multiple state-run and private financial institutions amount to NT$4.5 billion.
In the case of the Central Trust of China (中央信託局), according to prosecutors, officials of the state-run bank granted Chang's Yu Chuan (昱筌) construction company a NT$640 million loan after a conspiracy that artificially inflated the value of the company's collateral -- a construction site in Hsinchuang City (
A former assistant manager of the bank has been detained in connection with the matter since March 28. Prosecutors suspect that former minister without portfolio Chang Yu-hui (張有惠), who was chairman of the board of the bank when the loan was approved, was responsible for granting the loan.
Prosecutors questioned Chang Yu-hui on March 30 and he resigned six days later, proclaiming his innocence.
5. Changes to the zoning of the land on which the Ta Hsueh Shih Hsiang (
Prosecutors found that the Jin-Wen Group built the villa community on land which the Jin-Wen Institute had originally applied to use for a campus expansion.
Prosecutors are concerned about the process by which zoning for the 12-hectare site changed from farming use, to cultural and educational use and then to residential use.
They are investigating whether several government departments collaborated with the Jin-Wen group to illegally allow the construction of the villas.
6. Whether Chang Wan-li used the Ta Hsueh Shih Hsiang villas as a means of bribing government officials.
The community has been revealed to have a high concentration of high-ranking government officials from educational and other fields.
Prosecutors are still investigating whether a villa owned by Chang Yu-hui's son, Chang Chieh-kai (
Prosecutors say there is evidence suggesting that the villa might have partly been a gift from the Jin-Wen Group to the bank chairman's son, but Chang Yu-hui denies the accusation.
7. The intervention of criminal organizations and violence.
Since independent Legislator Lo Fu-chu (羅福助) attacked PFP Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) in the Legislative Yuan on March 28, the focus of the Jin-Wen scandal has been the fierce struggle between two factions to gain control of the boards of both the Jin-Wen Institute and Jin-Wen Senior High School.
Facing financial problems, Chang Wan-li allegedly "sold" the seats of the two boards to publisher Wu Ching-tang (吳慶堂) and chairman of the Republic of China Rowing Association (中華民國划船協會) Chen Hsi-nan (
Following this, the two factions disagreed over the distribution of power on the boards and over the management of the two schools.
The factions then sought backing from legislators and now several lawmakers, some of whom are suspected of having connections with gangsters and are alleged to have improperly exercised their influence with the Ministry of Education.
Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) last Thursday confirmed that a creditor of the Jin-Wen Institute had reported to the ministry that in a creditors' meeting last July some people displayed guns to intimidate other creditors.
Each side in the dispute over board seats has claimed that the other is backed by gangsters.
Palaces for politicians
High-ranking officials who reside at Ta Hsueh Shih Hsiang (大學詩鄉) community:
Lin Chao-hsien (林昭賢)
former Vice-Minister of Education (recently retired due to scandal)
Chang Yu-hui (張有惠)
Minister Without Portfolio (recently resigned due to the scandal); former president of the Central Trust of China
Kirby Yung (楊朝祥)
former Minister of Education
Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝)
former secretary-general to former president Lee Teng-hui
Hwang Jeng-shyong (黃正雄)
former deputy secretary-general to former president Lee Teng-hui
Chao Shuo-po (趙守博)
former chairman of Taiwan Provincial Government
Tsai Bih-hwang (蔡璧煌)
former chairman of the department of cultural affairs to the KMT
Huang Ta-chou (黃大洲)
former mayor of Taipei City
Heng Teh-hsuan (洪德旋)
former chairman of the Taiwan Provincial headquarters of the KMT
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