The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office yesterday said that the newly-elected Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄) has admitted that he bought votes from "some of the council's 44 councilors."
In an even more unexpected development in the case, prosecutors added that KMT Councilor Tsai Ching-yuan (
"He [Chu] named some of the councilors who accepted his bribe money but the total amount he admitted to was less than we suspected. However, his testimony did match that of his wife's, Wu Der-mei's (
Wu was released on NT$300,000 bail on Friday because her lawyer filed the bail request to the court and prosecutors also believe that she has cooperated with them and there was no longer existed any reason to detain her.
The couple were detained on Dec. 28. Chu still remains in custody.
Announcing Tsai's revelation, Chou told reporters, "He said that he was planning to buy votes at the price of NT$5 million for each vote as well, but he did not explain why he suddenly decided to quit his campaign for the speakership and began to support Chu."
Chou sought to clarify certain aspects of the investigation. "A Chinese-language news story reported that Chu has admitted that he bought votes from all the councilors we have summoned. That's not true. He didn't say that," he said.
He also denied a rumor that prosecutors made a deal with Chu to release him on bail if he agrees to step down.
"We never made that offer to him, and we never will" he said.
Chou confirmed the court granted prosecutors' request to detain Tsai, summoned by prosecutors Friday, at midnight yesterday.
Prosecutors believe that the sudden and mysterious withdrawal from the poll by Tsai, a veteran Kaohsiung City councilor about to start his his 6th term on the council, may suggest that he knows more than he has admitted.
Chou said that Tsai had admitted to receiving Chu's bribe money. Moreover, he said that he persuaded another five councilors to support Chu for the speakership and helped Chu distribute the bribe money to the five afterwards.
"Among the five, three of them are KMT and the rest are PFP. However, please forgive me if I cannot identify these councilors at this moment," Chou said.
Chou said that Kaohsiung prosecutors had summoned two more councilors, whom he could not name, yesterday morning, bringing to 29 the number of Kaohsiung City councilors to face questions regarding bribery. Of the 29, 10 have admitted to receiving NT$5 million in payoffs from Chu and have agreed to hand the money to prosecutors. Chou said that one councilor has so far failed to return the full amount, leaving a shortfall of NT$1.5 million.
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
HELPING HAND: The steering committee of the National Stabilization Fund is expected to hold a meeting to discuss how and when to utilize the fund to help buffer the sell-off The TAIEX plunged 2,065.87 points, or 9.7 percent, to close at 19,232.35 yesterday, the highest single-day percentage loss on record, as investors braced for US President Donald Trump’s tariffs after an extended holiday weekend. Amid the pessimistic atmosphere, 945 listed companies led by large-cap stocks — including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Largan Precision Co (大立光) — fell by the daily maximum of 10 percent at the close, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The number of listed companies ending limit-down set a new record, the exchange said. The TAIEX plunged by daily maxiumu in just
‘COMPREHENSIVE PLAN’: Lin Chia-lung said that the government was ready to talk about a variety of issues, including investment in and purchases from the US The National Stabilization Fund (NSF) yesterday announced that it would step in to staunch stock market losses for the ninth time in the nation’s history. An NSF board meeting, originally scheduled for Monday next week, was moved to yesterday after stocks plummeted in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 32 percent tariffs on Taiwan on Wednesday last week. Board members voted to support the stock market with the NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) fund, with injections of funds to begin as soon as today. The NSF in 2000 injected NT$120 billion to stabilize stocks, the most ever. The lowest amount it
NEGOTIATIONS: Taiwan has good relations with Washington and the outlook for the negotiations looks promising, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Taiwan’s GDP growth this year is expected to decrease by 0.43 to 1.61 percentage points due to the effects of US tariffs, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei yesterday, citing a preliminary estimate by a private research institution. Taiwan’s economy would be significantly affected by the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs slapped by the US, which took effect yesterday, Liu said, adding that GDP growth could fall below 3 percent and potentially even dip below 2 percent to 1.53 percent this year. The council has commissioned another institution
RSS