The Taoyuan District Court on Tuesday handed down prison sentences to two former Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) employees for soliciting bribes from a contractor during the expansion of the airport’s Terminal 2.
Former TIAC Construction Office director Lin Wen-chen (林文楨) and engineer Wu Chun-tsung (吳俊宗) were sentenced to 10 years, and five years and two months in prison respectively for accepting bribes during the Terminal 2 bidding process in 2016.
Lin and Wu approached New-Asia Construction, one of the companies bidding to work on the expansion, to solicit bribes totaling NT$6 million (US$206,058 at the current exchange rate) — about 3 percent of the NT$206 million cost of the project — to guarantee that their proposal was selected, court testimony showed.
The two ultimately received NT$2.9 million — with NT$1.8 million going to Lin and NT$1.1 million to Wu — before the bribes were discovered, the court said.
Meanwhile, during bidding for a road maintenance project, Lin agreed to provide another company with documents from previous successful bids and to structure part of the project as a limited tender in return for NT$1.3 million in cash.
However, Lin was caught before the money could change hands, the court said.
In a verdict delivered on Tuesday, the court found both men guilty of corruption, while also convicting Lin of disclosing secret documents on matters unrelated to national security.
In imposing the sentences, the court said that while Lin had confessed to his crimes and shown remorse, Wu at several points during the trial tried to shift the responsibility for his actions to others.
As both men had surrendered their illicit gains and did not have prior criminal records, they qualified for reduced sentences, the court said.
The rulings can be appealed.
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