The Supreme Court yesterday rejected an appeal by former Kinmen county commissioner Lee Wo-shih (李沃士) in a corruption case, upholding his seven-year-and-six-month sentence.
The court affirmed Lee’s earlier conviction of “taking a bribe while on official duty” in contravention of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), and ruled that he must serve the prison term imposed by the High Court in a retrial in May. He would also be deprived of his civil rights for five years.
That was the final verdict on the case.
Photo: Taipei Times
The May trial had also overturned an earlier trial that found Lee’s wife, Su Feng-ying (蘇鳳英), guilty of being an accomplice in the crime; she was acquitted.
Lee, representing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), served as commissioner from 2009 to 2014. He had authority over Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor — known for its sorghum-fermented kaoliang and other liquor products — as it was owned and operated by the county government.
Investigations found that Lee had two main financial backers for his election campaign: a technology company chairman surnamed Hsu (徐) and a marketing firm chairman surnamed Huang (黃). They had bankrolled Lee for many years and helped him win two terms as county councilor in the early 2000s.
Hsu and Huang originally wanted Lee to give them a monopoly over the casino and gaming business in Kinmen County, but they met opposition from regulatory bodies and other sectors, the ruling said.
The two decided they wanted to obtain the rights to sell Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor products in China instead, as the demand in the Chinese market could make big profits.
Lee prompted company executives to go for a new marketing campaign for its high-end products, but Hsu and Huang said the retail prices were too high so margins would be low, it said.
The ruling said Lee and Su were invited for dinner at Hsu’s house on July 2011, where he was requested to ask officials to adjust the prices to raise the margins from liquor sales in China.
Su was given a paper bag containing bundles of cash amounting to NT$1 million (US$30,762), which was then handed to Lee, the ruling said.
Lee later used his authority to pressure the company to lower its prices and grant discounts to retailers at below 60 percent, it said.
Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor executives held an internal discussion and in a final meeting in October 2011 decided to scrap the marketing program, and the public tender was canceled, the ruling said.
Soon after the company’s decision, someone filed a complaint to prosecutors and alleged that Lee and Su had taken bribes, which led to the investigation in late 2011.
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