Highwealth Construction Co chairman Cheng Chin-tien (鄭欽天) was questioned by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office as a witness on Monday night in an investigation into corruption allegations.
The office said it had found that Chen Li-ling (陳麗玲), listed as former Taoyuan County deputy commissioner Yeh Shih-wen’s (葉世文) mistress, owns a luxury apartment in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊) that was built by Highwealth, one of the nation’s leading real-estate developers.
Prosecutors said they suspected the company had sold the apartment to Chen below market value and that the deal involved illegal profiteering.
Prosecutors said that the apartment is worth about NT$30 million (US$1 million) and they called into question the financial ability of Chen, who does not work, and Yeh, a public servant, to afford such an apartment.
Prosecutors said Cheng, who denied the allegation, was released without bail at 11:30pm.
Highwealth later issued a statement saying the company had not bid for any government projects.
In other developments, prosecutors yesterday also summoned Yeh and retired professor Tsai Jen-hui (蔡仁惠), both of whom have been kept in custody, for questioning.
Prosecutors said Yeh still denied any wrongdoing and said the NT$16 million intercepted by prosecutors was a “loan.”
Prosecutors had said Chen provided four personal bank accounts in which Yeh deposited various alleged bribery payments and laundered money.
Those bank accounts and properties have been frozen, prosecutors said.
Farglory Group chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄) was detained on Monday last week over allegations that he bribed Yeh to secure a NT$1.3 billion contract to build the country’s largest affordable housing project in Taoyuan County’s Bade City (八德).
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