Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) yesterday filed a defamation suit against radio host Clara Chou (周玉蔻), who identified Gou as the businessman who allegedly offered a NT$300 million (US$9.5 million) political donation to Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) opposition ahead of last year’s nine-in-one elections.
In a recent interview with the talk show This Is It (關鍵時刻) on the Eastern Broadcasting Co channel, Ko, citing Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), said he had rejected a meeting with “a certain entrepreneur” during his campaign for Taipei mayor, because the man had “invested” NT$300 million in Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) and “did not wish to support other candidates.”
Chou on a TV program on Tuesday said that Gou was that man.
In response, Gou filed a libel suit against Chou seeking NT$10 million in compensation, a Hon Hai statement said.
Saying that Ko’s remark was a belligerent lie, Lien yesterday said he would withhold his legal right to sue Ko.
Separately, Chou raised doubts over the bidding process for the Taipei IT Park, a build-operate-transfer project launched by former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) administration to develop the Guanghua electronics market area, saying she suspected that the Hau administration had helped Hon Hai to secure the bid.
Chou questioned the eligibility of Cybermart — a Hon Hai subsidiary, which bid for the park project — to execute the NT$3.7 billion project, saying Cybermart was relatively inexperienced and had insufficient capital compared with its major competitor Clevo Co.
She said that Clevo should have won the bid instead, since it has owned and operated the largest IT distribution channel in China — Buynow shopping mall chain.
Chou added that Gou has covered up the fact that prosecutors are pursuing a breach of trust charge against several senior officials of Innolux Corp — one of Hon Hai’s major affiliates — because he wanted to secure an NT$80 billion repayment loan with interest rates as low as 1.8 percent from a syndicate led by Bank of Taiwan.
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