New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday called on Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp to explain its decision to hire a company linked to a major fraud case.
XDL Capital Ltd (興得利投資有限公司) has signed a contract with Kaohsiung Rapid Transit to take over a NT$1 billion (US$32.3 million) water park construction project in Daliao District (大寮), despite having achieved little since being founded in March last year, Huang told a news conference at the party’s caucus office in Taipei.
XDL is headquartered at the same address as Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船) and has the same telephone number, he said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office in February charged Ching Fu chairman Chen Ching-nan (陳慶男); company director Chen Lu Chao-hsia (陳盧昭霞), who is his wife; deputy chairman Chen Wei-chih (陳偉志), his son; former chief executive oChien Liang-chien (簡良鑑); and former consultant Lee Wei-feng (李維峰) with fraud, breach of trust and breaches of banking laws.
Prosecutors said the five conspired to submit fraudulent loan applications to banks using forged contracts and invoices, resulting in financial losses for the banks estimated at NT$13.1 billion.
Kaohsiung Rapid Transit initially discussed the water park project with Chen Wei-chih and Lee, Huang said.
He asked the corporation to explain why it chose XDL for the project, and when and with whom it began discussing the collaboration.
Huang on Friday last week said he suspected Kaohsiung Rapid Transit signed the contract with XDL to protect Chen Ching-nan and avoid being linked to Ching Fu.
XDL was not a contractor for the construction project, but was renting its land, the metro company said in a statement following the news conference.
Before the contract was signed last year, XDL said that it was unrelated to and independent of Ching Fu, the company added.
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