The Taipei District Court yesterday sentenced Farglory Group founder Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄) to seven years in prison on bribery and corruption charges.
New Taipei City Councilor Chou Sheng-kao (周勝考) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison on charges of giving and accepting bribes.
Former Taipei Department of Finance commissioner Lee Sush-der (李述德) was sentenced to nine years in prison and five years of disenfranchisement for financially benefiting Farglory Land Development Co, the main contractor for the Taipei Dome project.
Taipei Times file photo
Hung Chia-hung (洪嘉宏), former head of the Construction and Planning Agency’s Urban and Rural Development Branch, was sentenced to eight years and two months in prison on charges including taking bribes and hiding funds.
Hai Chih-ping (海治平), the division head of planning review at the New Taipei City Urban and Rural Development Department, was sentenced to four years and 10 months for bribery.
The verdicts can be appealed.
Prosecutors indicted 31 people in 2017 on charges of bribery and breach of trust in cases involving several public construction projects including the Taipei Dome.
Authorities investigated Chao on suspicion of embezzlement of funds from Farglory Life Insurance Co in 2007 and 2008, and bribery of New Taipei City officials in 2013 to obtain contracts for two real-estate development projects — the rezoning of a former coal mine in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District (土城) and a factory in the city’s Sinjhuang District (新莊).
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office had sought a jail term of 24 years for the 78-year-old Chao.
He was released on record bail of NT$550 million (US$17.11 million) and ordered to report to his local police station every day.
A collegial panel in July 2020 reduced the frequency that Chao had to report to the station to four times a week, on the condition that he pay additional bail of NT$250 million, with his sons Frank Chao (趙文嘉) and George Chao (趙信清) as guarantors.
Farglory Group general manager Jacky Yang (楊舜欽) said that bidding for the Taipei Dome project was conducted legally.
The group did not make illegal profits from the project, Yang said.
Asked about Chao’s sentence, Yang said it was regrettable that the judge did not accept Chao’s explanations, but the group firmly believes that he did not engage in illegal acts.
In response to the court’s judgement, Yang said that the company would facilitate corporate sustainability, adopt a more professional management system, enhance its corporate governance and improve its structure, culture and internal regulations.
Farglory is operating normally and growing steadily, he added.
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