In a widening probe on alleged corruption cases against indicted Keelung City Council Speaker Huang Ching-tai (黃景泰), authorities yesterday raided more Keelung City Government offices over suspected irregularities at a number of real-estate development and public sector projects.
Officers and investigators from the Northern Mobile Unit of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau (MJIB), began their search for evidence at 10am yesterday.
Among the city government divisions targeted by the MJIB squad were the Urban Development Bureau and its building administration section, the Department of Public Works and its civil engineering section, and the Department of Economic Affairs.
Bearing search warrants, the MJIB squad scrutinized papers and documents, made printouts of files and data from office computers and took away several cartons for case evidence.
Huang, facing corruption and peddling charges, has been detained and held incommunicado since Sept. 5, by order of the Keelung District Court.
Yesterday’s search was part of investigations into suspected irregularities of cases involving Huang and other Keelung City councilors.
These include real-estate developer Radium Life Tech’s construction project near the Badu (八堵) Railway Station, the “Castle above the City” luxury condominium project by JSL Group, and the Unison Developing Co’s street expansion and revitalization project in the area around Keelung’s Yuemei Road (月眉路).
Huang was a long-time member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and took up the Keelung City Council Speaker post in 2010. He was later embroiled in a number of cases on suspicion of accepting bribes and kickbacks, influence-peddling and defrauding the city government of public funds.
Earlier this year, he won the KMT primary to represent the party in the Keelung mayoral election. However, the KMT revoked his nomination on July 9 after a judicial inquiry into Huang’s role in several real-estate development projects.
Huang has vowed not to give up and is running as an independent candidate in the Nov. 29 Keelung mayoral election.
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