Lawyers representing the NET Fashion Development Co (主富服裝) filed a case against Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) on Friday last week accusing him of larceny, damage to private property and other charges in a dispute over a business agreement for the Keelung E-Square Mall (基隆東岸商場).
NET Co lawyer Chen Yi-wen (陳義文) said that under Hsieh’s orders, city officials accompanied by more than 40 police officers in the early morning hours of Thursday entered the NET Co store at the mall, hauled away equipment and furniture and evicted NET Co from the pemises, illegally “handing over” the space to the Breeze Group (微風集團).
Chen said that NET Co still retains rights for the mall’s commercial operation under the signed operate-and-transfer (OT) agreement. He accused the Keelung City Government of illegal conduct, to force the handover despite not having the “commercial property operating right.”
Photo: Lin Chia-tung, Taipei Times
Chen accused Hsieh of being dishonest, covering up talks with other companies to manage the E-Square Mall, despite “our agreement not being up till 2025.” Chen said the eviction was illegal, and filed the lawsuit for public prosecutors to investigate.
“The police entered and removed the security system, office equipment and furniture, before changing the locks and handing the key to the Breeze Group, who now have access to our office,” Chen said, adding that such actions amount to illegal breaking and entering, larceny and damage to private property.
The Keelung City Government said in a release that it “still retains the mall’s property ownership, therefore it was a legal action and not ‘breaking and entering into private property.’”
“We had posted a notice of eviction, and after the deadline, we exercised our legal authority to take back the property for handing over to the Breeze Group as the new operator of the mall,” it added.
Local media reported last month that Breeze Group had reached a renovate, operate and transfer (ROT) agreement with Keelung City Government, valid 20 years, in a deal reportedly valued at NT$300 million (US$9.6 million).
The media reports said that the E-Square Mall was being handed over to the Breeze Group to overhaul and renovate the mall complex, “to create a more upmarket shopping destination in the port city.”
Additional reporting by Lu Hsien-hsiu, with CNA
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
RSS