The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld the conviction on corruption charges of former Legislative Yuan secretary-general Lin Hsi-shan (林錫山), handing him a 15-year prison sentence and revoking his civil rights for five years in the second ruling in the case.
The terms were slightly reduced from the first ruling by the Taipei District Court in May last year, which sentenced Lin to 16 years in prison and revoked his civil rights for six years.
Lin was an important member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the Legislative Yuan. He served as legislator for three terms from 1990 to 1999, before being named secretary-general, a post he held until 2016.
The court in a statement said that Lin was found guilty on eight counts of taking bribes and kickbacks, and possession of assets of unknown origin.
Investigators said that Lin’s assets swelled while he served as secretary-general, but that he failed to explain the origin of at least NT$240.78 million (US$8.256 million at the current exchange rate).
The court ordered the confiscation of assets worth NT$268.78 million that it deemed illegal profits, of which Lin reportedly handed NT$133.46 million in cash and real estate to the court as guarantees.
The court said evidence suggests that Lin on eight separate occasions accepted NT$39.5 million in kickbacks and bribes from Lee Pao-cheng (李保承), the owner of contractor Far Net Technologies Co.
“Lin’s actions tarnished the civil service, including staff working under him, as they had to follow the orders from above,” the court said in its ruling. “He also could not clarify the questionable origin of his large and newly accumulated assets, severely damaging the image of government bureaucrats.”
Investigators said that Lin instructed his subordinate Chen Liang-yin (陳亮吟) to collude with Far Net Technologies by leaking the details of requirements in tenders to rig bids for projects including a new computer system, software upgrades and installation of digital communication hardware at the legislature.
Records showed that Far Net Technologies won 23 public tenders for telecommunications and computer system upgrades at the legislature from 2012 to 2015, investigators said.
Meanwhile, the court also upheld the guilty verdict for Lee, who has been sentenced to 30 months in prison
Chen was in May last year found guilty, and handed a six-month suspended prison sentence and 90 hours of community service.
Three employees of the section in charge of computer networks and telecommunications at the legislature were yesterday acquitted, reversing guilty verdicts in the first ruling.
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