The Ministry of Justice yesterday demoted former Taipei Prison warden Fang Tzu-chieh (方子傑) for having granted special privileges to jailed tycoon Gary Wang (王令麟) in 2013.
The ministry said Fang violated the Civil Service Act (公務員服務法) by providing Wang, chairman of the Eastern Multimedia Group, with private office space and allowing him to meet with visitors 38 times in 76 days while Wang was serving a 46-month term at the prison for embezzlement and the illegal transfer of company assets.
The special privileges granted by Fang, which were provided in return for bribes and valuable gifts from Wang’s personal secretary, Hu Hsiao-ching (胡曉菁), allowed Wang to act “like the big boss” of the prison, the ministry said, adding that Wang was given office space to conduct business meetings with staff and discuss details of the company’s operations.
In the decision by the ministry’s Committee on the Discipline of Public Functionaries made public yesterday, Fang was demoted two ranks in the nation’s civil service ranking system.
Investigators said they had evidence that Hu presented gifts with an estimated total value of NT$9,000 to Fang, who said they had nothing to do with him granting privileges to Wang, because he received the gifts only after he retired from the job in January 2014.
The former warden had already been impeached over the matter by the Control Yuan in June last year on violations of provisions of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
Critics yesterday said the demotion was merely a slap on the wrist.
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