Taipei City Councilor Ying Hsiao-wei (應曉薇) and Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), founder and chairman of the real estate conglomerate Core Pacific Group, were both released on bail this afternoon after being indicted yesterday with Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on bribery and other charges.
Ying burst into tears and denied any wrongdoing and corruption allegations as she paid her bail of NT$15 million (US$460,000) and left the court in Taipei at around 4pm.
Sheen, who was released on bail of NT$40 million earlier today, left the court in a wheelchair and was sent to the National Taiwan University Hospital for a medical check-up.
Photo: CNA
His family brought the money to pay his bail this morning.
During the detention hearing yesterday, Sheen denied bribing Ko with NT$15 million, saying he “didn’t give him a single penny.”
He said he wanted to support a third party because he was sick of the two major parties — the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Sheen said he wanted to be released on bail because he is unwell.
The Taipei District Court rejected prosecutors' requests to detain the five defendants in the case, including Ko, Ying, Sheen, former Taipei Deputy Mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲) and Lee Wen-tsung (李文宗), finance chief of Ko's 2024 presidential election campaign.
Pong and Lee were also released earlier today after paying their respective bails.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS