A township mayor from central Taiwan was banned from leaving the country yesterday after he and his associates came under suspicion of misappropriating 921 earthquake relief funds and materials.
Prosecutors on Monday raided a villa owned by Wu Chao-feng (吳朝豐), mayor of Chungliao township in Nantou County. The search, which was led by six prosecutors from the Taichung branch of the Black Gold Investigation Center, yielded two truckloads of earthquake relief supplies -- including donations from the Red Cross, World Vision and the Taipei City Government -- donated after the 921 earthquake.
Prosecutors found five prefabricated and container housing units in the villa area, plus five water tanks bearing Taipei City Government logos which were already in use. They also seized two truckloads of relief supplies, including 17 TV sets, five water heaters, 12 gas stoves, 40 woolen blankets, five refrigerators and 15 air beds.
Prosecutors also searched the township administration office and summoned four officials for questioning on Monday night. Three were released later, but reconstruction section chief Pai Hua-po (白華博) was detained.
Wu and some officials are also suspected of bid-rigging in a road reconstruction project and embezzling up to NT$20 million from public funds.
As the prosecutors summonsed Wu for questioning yesterday morning, he took a five-day leave from the township office. His whereabouts remained unknown as of press time. Prosecutors have already issued an arrest warrant and a restriction order banning Wu from leaving the country.
Prosecutors also summoned a number of other suspects for questioning yesterday.
The Nantou District Prosecutors' Office was flooded yesterday with inquiries from donors asking where their contributions had ended up. Prosecutors have asked donors to provide receipts for further investigation.
Meanwhile, Control Yuan members Li You-chi (李友吉) and Chen Chin-li (陳進利) have also applied for a separate investigation into Wu's case. Wu's behavior would be truly "vicious" if proven to be true, the United Evening News quoted Li as saying.
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