Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) said he would not seek re-election next year amid pressure over his ties to a fraud suspect.
In a statement on Sunday night, the legislator representing Yilan County apologized to his family and supporters for his association with Tseng Kuo-wei (曾國緯), the founder of peer-to-peer lending platform im.B, which is being investigated for allegedly defrauding customers.
Eleven Yilan County councilors of the DPP on Friday signed a letter asking the party to clarify Chen’s involvement in the case and his relationship to the principal suspects.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
“Earlier, I explained that I have no link to any criminal fraud ring. I was not aware of the whole situation when I accepted the company’s financial support,” he said. “I shall defend myself from false accusations. Therefore to defend myself, and protect our party’s election planning, I have decided to drop out of the legislative race.”
Chen and DPP officials have called for a thorough investigation into the case.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) figures have also been linked to the im.B scandal, including Taoyuan Mayor Simon Chang (張善政) and Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安).
Photographs have circulated showing Chang with Focal Healthcare chairman Chen Cheng-hsiu (陳正修). Tseng had served as general manager at Focal Healthcare.
Chang yesterday said he could not remember at which event the photograph was taken, as he meets many people while campaigning, and it would be wrong to connect him to the case based on just a picture.
Chiang told Taipei City councilors that he did not know Chen Cheng-hsiu, saying that they should present evidence before accusing him of involvement in the company.
Founded in 2015 by Tseng, im.B, which is short for “I am bank,” enables users to borrow money from each other. The platform offered interest rates of 9 to 12 percent.
Investigators arrested Tseng earlier this month.
He conducted seminars across Taiwan, promising good returns for investors, prosecutors said, adding that fraudulent profits totaled about NT$2.5 billion (US$81.49 million).
Additional reporting by Huang Ching-hsuan, Chen Yun and Cheng Ming-hsiang
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas