Prosecutors in central Taiwan have led raids in 18 locations and detained 58 people for questioning over allegations of illegal real-estate profiteering involving Ever Fortune Group (長億集團) owner Yang Tien-sheng (楊天生) and his son, Yang Wen-hsin (楊文欣).
The prosecutors yesterday finished questioning most of the 58 suspects to clarify their roles in and gather information about alleged land speculation in the Li Ming Area Rezoning Project, valued at more than NT$100 billion (US$3.14 billion), in Taichung’s Nantun District (南屯).
Yang Tien-sheng is the head of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Yang family faction in the Taichung region, and Yang Wen-hsin is a former KMT lawmaker and Taiwan provincial councilor who held office in the 1990s.
Investigators said that, starting in 2005, Ever Fortune executives allegedly colluded with Fu Yo Land Development Co (富有土地開發公司), where Yang Wen-hsin is listed as an adviser, to use figureheads to set up ownership registries and forged documents for land expropriation to defraud landowners living on the project’s site.
Investigators said that over the past decade, the Yangs and the land development companies allegedly made more than NT$10 billion in illegal profits through the dealings.
A self-help association representing the original landowners, who said they are victims of the alleged fraud, yesterday held a protest in front of the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office after learning that the Yangs were released following questioning.
Accompanied by a lawyer, the landowners lauded the raids and the probe, demanding that the judiciary make a thorough investigation.
Lin Chin-lien (林金連), one of the leaders of the self-help association and a landowner who used to run a kindergarten, said his land was expropriated by Ever Fortune and other developers.
Lin said he took the case to the local government and even pleaded with the Presidential Office to retain the land and continue operating the kindergarten, to no avail.
Lin said that since the beginning of the project, the Yang family used their political influence and allegedly brought in gangsters and developers, using threats and forged documents, to force the landowners to sign contracts agreeing to the expropriation of their lands for rezoning and development.
“I was against it and applied to the Taichung City Government in 2011 to retain my land, after which the government sent an official notice to the developers to hold a formal negotiation with me and treat my case fairly. However, they ignored it and the kindergarten was demolished and the land was expropriated. What took place was illegal,” Lin said.
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