The wife of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday posted online the couple’s annual income since 2015 in response to bribery allegations against Ko, who has been detained since early September.
Retired pediatrician Peggy Chen (陳佩琪) listed on Facebook the couple’s combined annual income from 2015 to last year based on their income tax filings, after writing a day earlier that she had been questioned by prosecutors on Wednesday.
The income she posted mostly ranged from NT$6 million to NT$8 million (US$186,829 to US$249,105), except in 2022 when it was NT$9,097,749 and last year when it was the NT$5,423,236.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Ko served two terms as Taipei mayor starting on Dec. 25, 2014. The physician-turned-politician founded the TPP in 2019 and unsuccessfully ran for president in January.
He was detained and held incommunicado on Sept. 5 after the couple was questioned by prosecutors over their alleged involvement in a corruption case involving the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project.
On Nov. 1, the Taipei District Court granted the prosecutors’ motion to extend Ko’s detention for another two months.
Chen posted a wedding photograph, a document said to cover Ko’s expenditures as mayor, and remarks she said she made when she was questioned last week.
“Describing him [Ko] as a bribe-taking corrupt criminal, who would pocket any money he could, is basically to shame him, to destroy him,” Chen wrote.
It was the second time Chen was questioned by prosecutors as part of their investigation into allegations that Ko used his position to illegally benefit the Core Pacific Group (威京集團) in redeveloping a site in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) during his second term as mayor from 2018 to 2022.
Prosecutors said he allegedly took bribes related to the project, but are still trying to obtain evidence to prove that charge.
Ko and Chen were first questioned by the Agency Against Corruption on Aug. 30 after prosecutors searched their home and his offices earlier that day. Former deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲) was also questioned and detained.
A few days before they were questioned, prosecutors detained Core Pacific Group chairman Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), Taipei City Councilor Ying Hsiao-wei (應曉薇) and several others for their alleged involvement in the case.
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