Judicial investigators have reportedly gathered more evidence and interviewed witnesses for a probe into allegations of financial improprieties by Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) when he was head of Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corp amid new information allegedly provided by unnamed sources.
The probe was launched by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office in January 2017 after Han was accused of using his position as general manager of the firm to channel monetary gifts for undue financial benefit.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) in October 2016 said that the company, under Han’s direction, hiked up prices of fruits and vegetables to make huge profits during a supply shortage due to several typhoons.
Photo: Huang Chia-lin, Taipei Times
Tuan also accused Han and his close friends of benefiting personally by ordering fruit gift boxes from the firm’s board members, who are in the fruit production and supply business, saying that the company paid significantly inflated prices for the gift boxes.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Liang Wen-jie (梁文傑) in November 2016 said that he had access to financial records that purportedly showed the company’s revenue from January to September of that year totaling NT$96 million (US$3.1 million at the current exchange rate).
Liang said that Han ordered NT$77.02 million of that revenue disbursed to company employees as year-end bonuses and rewards, in addition to their regular salaries.
As the firm is a state-controlled entity, with most shares owned by the Taipei City Government and the Council of Agriculture, bonuses and rewards to staff must be approved by the board of directors, but Han gave himself authority to issue them, Liang said.
Bypassing the board of directors resulted in financial losses for the partially government-owned firm and the public, Liang said, accusing Han of breaches of trust and contraventions of provisions of the Company Act (公司法).
The Chinese-language Mirror Media magazine and the Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) yesterday cited a political pundit as saying that Taipei prosecutors would likely file formal charges against Han, as they have identified the money flow of alleged financial improprieties at the firm under him and investigators have conducted searches for evidence.
Prosecutors have searched offices and residences of people connected with the case, including a woman surnamed Wang (王) who local media have reported had an extramarital affair with Han for several years that produced a daughter out of wedlock and was kept secret from his wife, Lee Chia-feng (李佳芬), the pundit was quoted as saying.
Someone at the prosecutors’ office leaked plans to raid Wang’s residence in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊), which tipped off Huang Wen-tsai (黃文財) — a close friend who Han appointed as president of Kaohsiung City Shipping Co — who reportedly grabbed “incriminating evidence and documents” and hid on the building’s roof during the search, the pundit was quoted as saying.
The prosecutors’ office yesterday said that it had no evidence of Huang undertaking the alleged actions during the search of Wang’s residence.
The office said that it always abides by the principle of maintaining confidentiality of a case under investigation, adding that any official found leaking information would be prosecuted.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS