Prosecutors have listed former Taipei mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as a suspect in a corruption probe relating to the Core Pacific City (京華城) shopping mall redevelopment and the Beitou Shilin Science Park (北投士林科技園區) project.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday confirmed the investigation after receiving complaints from third parties alleging misconduct, illegal profiteering, and questionable negotiation and approval procedures on the two projects in contravention of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
The development came after more documents, meeting records and other evidence surfaced, and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors set up two investigation committees with the authority to call upon Ko and city government officials to question their involvement.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
In the Core Pacific City shopping mall redevelopment project in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), Ko allegedly had overseen the negotiations and signed an agreement to increase the floor area ratio (FAR) from 392 percent to 840 percent, which would allow the mall’s owner, Core Pacific Group (威京集團), to derive extra financial gains of more than NT$40 billion (US$1.23 billion), DPP Taipei city councilors Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) and Chien Shu-pei (簡舒培) said.
“This is the key evidence showing that Ko abused his authority to allow a large corporation to illegally benefit,” Hsu said.
Core Pacific Group applied to dismantle the mall, which had been losing money, to build combined commercial and luxury residential buildings, and requested the city government to grant a much higher than normal FAR of 840 percent, she said.
Increased FAR is usually granted as an incentive in urban renewal projects to permit more floor area, but usually at 130 to 150 percent.
“The 840 percent is the highest ever in city history; no other landowner or business has come close to getting so much,” Hsu said, adding that it amounted to Ko giving Core Pacific Group more than 1,000 ping (3,306m2) for free.
“We have many city residents who have applied for an urban renewal project and they cannot even get 1 ping at old building for 1 ping at the new building, and only a few get a slightly higher FAR, but Ko’s approval of 840 percent means Core Pacific Group was able to trade in 1 ping and get 4 ping for the new redevelopment project,” she said.
In the other case, Ko is suspected of using illicit means to favor Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) winning 50-year surface rights to plots T17 and T18 at the Beitou Shilin Science Park without needing an investment plan.
Chien said after construction work began at the science park, the city government posted public tenders for plots T16, T17 and T18 in 2019.
Shin Kong Life Insurance secured the latter two plots, despite not having an investment plan to attract science and technology companies, while other bidders allegedly had submitted higher bids, she said.
Chien alleged that Ko was looking for financial support from large corporations for TPP candidates’ election campaigns, while the science park deal led to Ko naming Cynthia Wu (吳欣盈), a granddaughter of Shin Kong Group’s founder, on the party’s legislators-at-large list.
She later served as a TPP legislator from 2020 to January, then ran alongside Ko as the vice presidential candidate in January’s presidential election.
Taipei prosecutors said they are coordinating with Ministry of Justice Agency Against Corruption to investigate.
KMT city councilors submitted materials to the the Control Yuan and demanded an investigation into Ko.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS