Prosecutors yesterday searched the offices and residences of Kinmen County Commissioner Chen Shui-tsai (陳水在) and Kinmen County Council Speaker Chen Shui-mu (陳水木) for their alleged involvement in a scandal surrounding the sale of Kinmen kaoliang liquor.
"We suspect that illegal deals were involved in the distributorship between the county government-run Kinmen Alcohol Corp (金門酒廠) and its agent companies," Hwang Chaur-grey (黃朝貴), divisional head prosecutor of Kinmen District Prosecutors' Office, said.
The commissioner formerly held a concurrent post as the board chairman of the corporation but resigned from the position in April.
Prosecutors and investigators yesterday questioned the commissioner's son, Chen Hung-jen (陳宏仁), a securities company manager; the general manager of the Kinmen Alcohol Corp, Hsin Kuan-te (辛寬得); and several officials from the corporation's agent companies.
Hwang said the prosecution has not yet summoned the commissioner and speaker for questioning but added that it would do so when necessary.
Hwang yesterday declined to discuss details of the case. However, in March, DPP legislator Lin Feng-hsi (
At the March 28 press conference, Lin said the retail prices of various types of liquor under exclusive distributorship by respective agents were much higher than the prices set by the Ministry of Finance.
Lin also alleged that Chen's serving as the board chairman of the alcohol corporation was in violation of the Civil Servant Services Act (
Chen at the time argued that the corporation was not responsible for its distributors' raising the prices. He also said his political foe Chen Tsang-chiang (陳滄江), a member of the Fuchien Provincial Council, was behind the accusations.
Hwang confirmed a media report yesterday that another point of the investigation concerns "public relations" liquor. According to regulations, the Kinman County commissioner enjoys a quota of "not for sale" liquor that he can give out as presents.
However, the report said the amount of liquor earmarked for gifts exceeded that which was necessary, and that prosecutors are investigating whether some of it was instead sold to make a profit.
The county government-run corporation is also in the process of privatization, and it has been widely rumored that the corporation had illegally started to sell the subscription rights to its future shares. However, Hwang said the prosecution has not yet focused on this area of speculation surrounding the corporation.
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