Two Hualien County pan-blue politicians were on Monday convicted of corruption for bid-rigging on public construction projects, receiving kickbacks from companies and embezzling funds from government subsidies.
The Greater Taichung District Court sentenced Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Hualien branch director and former Hualien mayor Tsai Chi-ta (蔡啟塔) to 15 years in prison, while People First Party Legislator Lin Cheng-er (林正二) was sentenced to 20 years in a related case.
Tsai was also the KMT’s Hualien County commissioner candidate in the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections. He lost to incumbent Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁), a former KMT member who ran as an independent.
Political pundits called Tsai’s corruption conviction a highly embarrassing development for the KMT and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), as the president nominated Tsai to contend in Hualien County.
During the campaign, Ma visited Hualien City for a KMT election rally supporting Tsai, at one point handing the KMT party flag to Tsai in a symbolic gesture of passing the torch. Ma also personally vouched for Tsai’s “capability and integrity.”
The cases against Tsai and Lin were linked when the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office began a judicial probe in 2006 into a series of financial irregularities involving public construction projects in the then-Taichung County.
Prosecutors found that Tsai and Lin — directly or through their aides — were engaged in bid-rigging, pressuring government officials to give public tenders to designated companies and receiving kickbacks.
The ruling said that investigators found that Tsai and Lin also rigged bids and accepted kickbacks on projects in other areas, including public park redesigns, construction in Hualien City and sports park construction in Pingtung County.
Investigators uncovered NT$8.26 million (US$260,500) in suspected kickback cash in bank accounts belonging to Lin and his aide, while Tsai was suspected of receiving at least NT$1.76 million.
KMT headquarters on Monday issued a statement saying that Tsai’s party membership was suspended and that he has resigned from his party post.
Tsai said yesterday that he would appeal the court ruling; Lin could not be reached for comment. Lin is still serving a term for a vote-buying conviction from last year.
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