Pingtung County prosecutors on Monday detained Mudan Township (牡丹) Warden Chen Ying-ming (陳英銘) as part of a probe into a corruption case in which Chen allegedly received NT$18 million (US$546,498) in kickbacks from contractors working on public projects.
Prosecutors said Chen, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member, allegedly demanded and received kickbacks of between 5 percent and 10 percent of the total value of public construction and procurement programs under his administration since 2010.
The Pingtung County Government yesterday suspended Chen from his warden’s post.
Chen was first elected to head Mudan in 2009 and was re-elected on the KMT ticket in the nine-in-one elections last year.
Investigators said they discovered that Chen allegedly received the kickbacks through his associate, Cheng Kuei-shun (鄭佳順), who acted as a “white glove” intermediary.
The projects, which contractors secured through tender bids, included: road maintenance and expansion; river remediation and flood control; environmental improvement programs for local communities; procurement orders; and township office renovations.
Chen was allegedly using the kickbacks for real-estate investments, registered under a third party, which investigators traced to find a stash of possible payoff money in a car belonging to Cheng.
Prosecutors said they have secured witness testimonies and corroborating documents and other evidence, and found irregularities in the flow of money in Chen’s bank accounts.
Several implicated contractors have confessed to paying kickbacks to Cheng as an intermediary for Chen, prosecutors said.
However, Chen has denied any wrongdoing.
At the conclusion of the investigation, prosecutors filed charges of violations of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) against Chen and requested that he be detained incommunicado to prevent the destruction of evidence and collusion with other suspects.
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