The Control Yuan is to decide whether to impeach retired chief prosecutor Lo Jung-chien (羅榮乾), who was among 200 judicial and government officials implicated in a case centered on former Supreme Court judge Shih Mu-chin (石木欽) and businessman Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾).
The Ministry of Justice’s prosecutorial personnel review committee on Feb. 19 forwarded Lo’s case to the Control Yuan, the nation’s top watchdog with the authority to impeach civil servants.
According to the ministry’s internal investigation, Lo attended 74 banquets hosted by Weng and received eight personalized shirts and other gifts from the Chia Her Industrial Co president, from 1998 to 2015, while Weng was embroiled in legal disputes for which he won favorable rulings.
Although Lo did not handle any of Weng’s court cases, he was found to have engaged in improper conduct, “leading to suspicion, tarnishing the reputation of judicial officials and eroding the public’s trust,” ministry officials said.
Legal experts said that after the Control Yuan rules on the impeachment case, Lo would face the Court of the Judiciary, which can terminate his retirement pension, deemed one of the most severe punishments for retired officials.
Considered a high-ranking prosecutor, Lo has been a chief prosecutor in Pingtung and Chiayi counties, before serving in the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office, and as head of the Judicial Yuan’s ethics office and the ministry’s Department of Prevention, Rehabilitation and Protection.
Lo applied for retirement last year, after the case came to light, with the Control Yuan investigating wrongdoing and illicit activities related to Weng.
According to the Control Yuan’s probe, Weng first befriended Shih, then a local court judge, in the 1990s and started meeting other judges and judicial officials shortly after.
Weng in the late 1990s was in a legal dispute with a foreign bank over a US$10 million check used as collateral to cover his company’s financial losses, the report said.
Shih did not recuse himself from court cases involving Weng, the report said, adding that Weng had 27 notebooks recording banquets and meetings with Shih and other judicial officials, who were alleged to have received bribes and lavish gifts, including company stock, in exchange for using their influence to aid Weng.
Shih later became a Supreme Court judge and secretary-general of the Commission on the Disciplinary Sanctions of Functionaries, a Judicial Yuan body that oversees all judges and prosecutors.
The Control Yuan in August last year impeached Shih.
Shih has denied wrongdoings and filed a lawsuit against Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) and other officials.
At a Feb. 18 Taipei District Court hearing, Shih’s lawyers said he was falsely accused and that the Judicial Yuan had made inappropriate use of evidence and forged documents to implicate Shih in alleged misconduct.
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