The Taipei District Court handed down sentences on Friday to 15 former and incumbent officials at the Ministry of Finance’s National Property Bureau (NPB) who were convicted on corruption charges.
Eleven others, including property developers and a land administration agent, were also sentenced in the case, which involved the sale of a piece of land located on Hangzhou S Road in Taipei City’s Daan District (大安) several years ago.
Su Wei-cheng (蘇維成), a former NPB deputy director, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, fined NT$10 million (US$343,000), and had his civil rights suspended for 10 years for masterminding the illegal sale of the land, formerly owned by the now defunct Taiwan Provincial Government, while he was in office.
According to the Taipei District Court ruling, Su and his accomplices, including Chen Kuan-pao (陳官保), another former NPB deputy director, and Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲), an incumbent NPB deputy director, started organizing the scheme in 2002.
The land had been held in trust by the NPB since 1999 after the downsizing of the provincial -government and Su and the 14 other officials first arranged for several proxies to rent the Japanese-style wooden residential houses built before the 1940s on the site.
That enabled the proxies to be able to enjoy priority rights to purchase the land, which they later used to acquire the land at prices much lower than normal.
Su and the other 14 officials then had the land sold to two property development companies, costing the government NT$120 million in revenue, according to the 400-page verdict.
Chen was sentenced to 13 years in prison, fined NT$5 million and deprived of his civil rights for 10 years. Chuang got an eight-year jail term and a NT$3 million fine and had his civil rights suspended for eight years.
Twelve other former and incumbent NPB officials received sentences ranging from five years and six months to 10 years, according to the ruling.
Tsai Ming-jun (蔡銘俊), president of a property development company, was given a jail term of 10 years and four months, along with a fine of NT$20 million, while Chien Hsing-chi (簡性琦), a vice president of the same company, was sentenced to 10 years and two months in prison and fined NT$18 million.
Wang Ming-dao (王明道), owner of another construction company involved in the scheme, was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison, while Chan Teh-yu (詹德育), a land administration agent, got an eight-year jail term, according to the ruling.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS