The Ciaotou District Court sentenced a military subcontractor to five years and six months in prison for importing sub-par body armor materials from China and forging product certificates, saying that he displayed “egregious misconduct” in cheating the armed forces.
The verdict is subject to appeal.
A man named Yang Tsun-hsun (楊淙勛) was accused of masquerading Chinese-made polyurethane as European polyethylene and supplying the substance to manufacturers that produce shock-absorbing pads used in tactical vests, the court wrote in an Aug. 24 judgement.
Photo: Lo Tien-pin, Taipei Times
The manufacturers were supplying the pads to the Armament Bureau’s 205th Arsenal on contracts implemented in 2017 and 2018, it said, adding that the contract specifically forbade the use of any material and component originating from China.
The bureau discovered that the certificates of the delivered products were forged and that they were made of an inferior grade of substance, resulting in termination of the contract without compensation and a criminal complaint against the parties involved, the court said.
Investigations by the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office led to the discovery that Yang had lied to manufacturers about the source of the materials he supplied and falsified test results, it said.
Yang admitted to lying about his product’s country of origin, but claimed that his company had improved the polyurethane via heating, pressurizing and shaping the goods, the court said.
The judge presiding over the court rejected the defendant’s argument to find him guilty of breaching the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法) and committing fraud and forgery, it said.
Yang was sentenced to prison and pay a NT$500,000 fine, the court said, adding that the quality of shock-absorbing pads could be a matter of life and death to combat troops.
The manufacturing companies involved were found guilty of colluding to capture a governmental bid, the court said, adding that they received fines in addition to the confiscation of the proceeds from the contract.
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