Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) made the main decisions and gave final approval in the Core Pacific City redevelopment project, Taipei city councilors said in a report on Tuesday, while others were questioned yesterday over details of a corruption investigation linked to the property.
Taipei prosecutors are investigating allegations that Ko, during his time as Taipei mayor, and others profited from corruption linked to the mall project.
Prosecutors yesterday questioned — for the fourth time each — former Taipei deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲) and Core Pacific Group chairman Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), who are both in pretrial detention, while on Tuesday they questioned for the third time former Taipei Urban Planning Commission head Lin Jou-min (林洲民).
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
Prosecutors reportedly sought to verify Pong’s earlier testimony that Ko had intervened at commission meetings in 2020 and 2021, instructing city officials to increase the floor area ratio for the project.
Pong had told prosecutors that Ko told him to ensure the ratio was raised and approved the project.
Taipei city councilors and others have accused Ko of accepting bribes and kickbacks from Sheen after the project was approved.
Investigators are looking into accounts to determine whether the floor area ratio change enabled Core Pacific Group to boost the value of the property.
Taipei City Councilor Chien Shu-pei (簡舒培) of the Democratic Progressive Party said that the ratio change added more than NT$40 billion (US$1.26 billion) to its value.
Meanwhile, at Taipei City Hall, councilors on Tuesday presented a report that said meeting minutes mostly confirmed Pong’s testimony.
Headed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Yu Shu-hui (游淑慧), the team began work in May to compile the minutes from meetings related to the project and posted them online for public viewing.
The report quoted Pong as saying that Ko in 2020 ordered him to work on the redevelopment project, appointing him as project manager.
Separately, Japanese academic Yoshiyuki Ogasawara in Hsinchu yesterday said that Ko would fight to extend his political career, despite the corruption scandal, and that people should not count out the TPP.
Ogasawara is a guest lecturer at National Tsing Hua University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
“After the presidential election, support for the TPP has declined steadily and dwindled even more after the accusations emerged, but Ko still has his core support at about 10 percent and the party still has eight legislative seats, he said.
The lawmakers can maintain their volume in public discourse and would continue to operate, until perhaps next year, when there might be a big change for it, depending on how the cases against Ko go, he added.
Separately, Taipei prosecutors are expanding their investigation into allegations that Ko illegally benefited by taking control of TPP funds and might be involved in money laundering.
My-Formosa.com chairman Wu Tzu-chia (吳子嘉) said that prosecutors have found evidence at Ko’s residence of irregular money flows and missing party funds.
Wu said that Ko set up four entities to facilitate money transfers and used a USB drive for cryptocurrency transactions.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
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
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