An arrest warrant was issued on Wednesday for former Tainan county council speaker Wu Chien-pao (吳健保) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who disappeared before he could start to serve his conviction linked to baseball game-fixing scandals that started in the 2006 season.
Wu was supposed to report to the Tainan District Prosecutors Office at 10am on Tuesday to start serving a three-year-and-two-month sentence, but he did not appear.
Judiciary officials said Wu would be put on the wanted list.
His family told police that Wu has not been seen for more than a month and they had not been able to contact him by telephone for the past two weeks.
There are rumors that he has fled to the Philippines.
After being convicted of blackmail, breach of trust and other charges for being one of the masterminds behind game-fixing scandals that tarnished the reputation of the Chinese Professional Baseball League and several players, he — along with 35 baseball players and several gang members — was sentenced on Aug. 13.
Wu and the other principals were found guilty of enticing baseball players to throw games with offers of money, sex with female escorts or threat of violence.
Wu served two terms as Tainan County council speaker from 2002 to 2010, before the county merged with Tainan city to become Greater Tainan.
Wu retains a great deal of political clout in Greater Taiwan, and was working to help his son, Wu Yu-huan (吳禹寰), win a seat on a councilor seat for the upcoming election in November.
Wu reportedly did not want to go to prison because the publicity it would create might hurt his son’s campaign.
The baseball scandal is not the first time Wu has been sentenced to prison.
In May 2011, he was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to three-year-and-a-half years in the first ruling by the Greater Tainan branch of the Taiwan High Court for his role in illegal sand-and-gravel quarrying on the Tseng-wen River (曾文溪).
Wu and 25 others had been indicted in August 2004 on charges of bribing officials, breaking government procurement laws and colluding to steal public assets in connection with a river-dredging contract won by Wu and former Tainan city councilor Lee Chuan-fu (李全富).
Wu was removed as council speaker following the verdict, and unusually, prosecutors sought to have him report to prison just a week later and dispatched police officers to monitor his movements.
However, Wu appealed the ruling — but vowed he had no intention of leaving the country to avoid going to prison.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS