Prosecutors yesterday appealed a decision to grant Taipei City Councilor Chen Chung-wen (陳重文) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) bail following his detention over alleged corruption.
Chen is accused of accepting kickbacks from contactors in a NT$520 million (US$16.46 million) city project to install surveillance cameras. He posted bail of NT$2 million.
Investigators from the Ministry of Justice Agency Against Corruption yesterday detained Chen and Taiwan Intelligent Fiber Optic Network Consortium chairman Lee Ching-huang (李慶煌) and transferred them to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning.
Photo: CNA
Chen, a three-term city councilor representing Taipei’s Shilin (士林) and Beitou (北投) districts, faces charges of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), while Lee and eight other people are also listed as suspects, prosecutors said.
The Agency Against Corruption last year received information from a whistle-blower about a city government project to install online video streaming and data storage equipment for a closed-circuit television system at police stations, Chinese language media reported.
The whistle-blower said that the budget for the project was cut during a review by city councilors.
Lee asked Chen to alter the budget by using his authority to give the consortium greater profit potential, the whistle-blower said.
Investigators in December last year and January surveilled late-night meetings at which Lee allegedly handed over about NT$10 million to Chen, the reports said.
The consortium has won numerous contracts to supply cameras and other equipment installed at intersections, including a 25-year maintenance contract, they said.
Two other companies have been linked to the scandal, including an agro-biotech company headed by Chen’s wife, Pai Hui-ping (白惠萍), and a cloud storage company headed by Kang Li-chi (康立錡).
Pai was released after posting bail of NT$2 million and Kang was released on NT$300,000 bail.
In other news, Changzi Township (長治) Mayor Ku Chia-chuan (古佳川) on Thursday was convicted of corruption in a first ruling.
The Pingtung District Court said that Ku, an independent, had used government funds for personal expenses and forged receipts, handing him an eight-year sentence.
In line with new laws governing elected officials, Ku was suspended from his position.
Separately, Hsinchu County Councilor Cheng Yu-yun (鄭昱芸) lost her appeal in a corruption case, with the Supreme Court upholding an earlier conviction, meaning she must serve a three-year, eight-month prison sentence.
Investigators found that Cheng pocketed NT$218,000 of government subsidies allocated for her to hire office assistants.
She listed two friends as her assistants, but they never worked for her and she never paid them, investigators said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS