Lay judges are to take part in a corruption trial involving a civil servant in New Taipei City who allegedly colluded with businesses suspected of operating inheritance scams to profiteer from property development, the Ministry of Justice said on Friday.
Taipei prosecutors indicted Wang Tzu-yi (王子誼), a clerk at the Household Registration Office of New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店), on charges of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) and the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) by allegedly taking bribes, leaking classified information and laundering money.
It is the first time that lay judges would adjudicate a corruption case involving a civil servant since the promulgation of the Citizen Judges Act (國民法官法) in August 2020 and its implementation in 2023, the ministry said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Wang allegedly received NT$11.15 million (US$373,545) in bribes over 12 years, using her job’s access to pass on household registration, personal IDs, property deeds, ownership documents and personal seal information to 16 real-estate development firms, the indictment said.
Wang allegedly accessed the information using the local government’s household registration database, checking the inheritance information for registered property owners and passing the information to the real-estate firms, the indictment said.
The real-estate companies would then allegedly use the information to fraudulently claim ownership of the properties through forged wills and property deed transfers, it said.
The Taipei District Court in July last year convicted 44 people in the wider real-estate scam, including Chuan Rong Real Estate Co owner Tsai Shang-yue (蔡尚岳) and attorney Tsai Hung-shen (蔡鴻燊), who received 14-year and 25-year sentences respectively.
Investigators later uncovered the alleged involvement of Wang and others in the scam ring, the ministry said.
The other defendants would be tried in regular courts, it said, adding that their cases were not suitable for lay judges.
The alleged scam operation defrauded 12 people, mostly older people living on their own, for a profit of about NT$149.25 million, the indictment said.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS