Taipei City Councilor Chen Chung-wen (陳重文) was yesterday sentenced to nine years in prison after being found guilty of illegally obtaining more than NT$3.7 million (US$113,081) for himself and a business partner through a public project.
According to the Taipei District Court ruling, Chen was found guilty of corruption and a range of other offenses related to his involvement in a city government procurement project.
Six months of the sentence could be commuted to a fine of approximately NT$180,000, the ruling said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Chen, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) who has served as a city councilor since December 2014, said he would discuss the ruling with his attorney before deciding whether to appeal the court’s decision.
The court found that Chen had used his position to pressure the Taipei Department of Social Welfare and the Taiwan Intelligent Fiber Optic Network Consortium on multiple occasions last year.
Because of that pressure, the social welfare department awarded a contract for the installation of cloud-based CCTV systems across the city’s public nursing care centers to the consortium, the court said.
It subcontracted the project to a company Chen set up with his business partner Kang Li-chi (康立錡) in July last year, the ruling said, before passing the project to Kang’s own company, Vqorder Co.
Through these dealings, Chen made nearly NT$3.09 million in illegal gains, and Kang made NT$610,845, the ruling said.
In pressuring the social welfare department for his own benefit, Chen violated a provision in Article 6 of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), according to the court.
The provision mandates a sentence of at least five years for “using the opportunity provided by one’s position or status for unlawful gains for oneself or for others in matters under his or her charge or supervision while clearly knowing the act violates the law.”
Chen was also convicted of falsely inflating the capital of the company he cofounded with Kang as well as his other company.
Chen’s wife, Pai Hui-ping (白惠萍), who had managed his finances, was given a one-year sentence, suspended for two years, for her involvement in the case.
Her sentence could be commuted to a fine, but she was ordered to pay an additional NT$200,000 to the public treasury.
Kang received a three-year suspended sentence and was ordered to pay NT$300,000 to the public treasury and complete 100 hours of community service.
Chen and the others were indicted by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on July 19, with the 47-year-old city councilor charged with seeking illegal gains, forging documents and embezzlement, among other offenses.
Prosecutors had called for heavy punishment for Chen, citing in particular his repeated requests for documents from the social welfare department and questioning of the department’s officials during city council meetings, among other means of exerting pressure.
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