KMT Legislator Gary Wang (
Eleven defendants were also called at the committal proceedings yesterday to state whether they had been involved in the multi-million land deals -- one made in 1998 and the other in 1999.
Informed of the charges against him -- breach of trust, forgery and tampering with accounting records -- Wang, chairman of Eastern Multimedia and also chairman of the General Chamber of Commerce of the ROC (
The heir to the Rebar Group denied that he had inflated the price of a plot of land in Yangmei township, Taoyuan County, and obtained millions of dollars in under-the-table profits through the resale of the land, measured approximately 75,000m2.
Tsai, also appearing in yesterday's pre-trial procedure, denied the allegations that he had helped facilitate the land transactions between Wang's company and the state-run Taiwan Development and Trust Corp (TDTC,
Tsai, who plans to run in the December legislative elections, also urged the presiding judge Chu Meng-ping (
Chu did not respond to Tsai's request.
Prosecutors from the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office said that the case involved two stages: the sale and then the purchase of land in Yangmei. During each stage, under-the-table deals between the two sides inflated the price of the land to create illegal profits.
According to prosecutors, the listed Far Eastern Silo and Shipping (FESS,
The prosecution said that around NT$189 million of the price difference found its way through several dummy accounts into the accounts of another company owned by Wang. Chu's company also made NT$55 million from the artificially raised price.
The prosecution said this was a conspiracy in which Wang, Chu and two others squeezed money out of FESS and its shareholders. FESS intended to build a villa complex on the land, but due to the continuing decline in real estate prices, Wang then sought, after partially developing it, to sell it off for NT$1.8 billion to the state-run TDTC, also a listed company.
According to the indictment, Wang asked his close aide Chou Chi-peng (
Wang then asked Tsai Hau a board member of TDTC and Kao Chien-wen (高建文), the vice chairman, to push the board to make a decision to buy the land in November 1999. The move came hot on the heels of a report conducted by TDTC only a month earlier which concluded that such an investment was not worthwhile.
The prosecution has asked for a jail term of four years, 10 months for Wang and three years for Tsai. The trial is scheduled to begin on July 18.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
RSS