Taipei police on Wednesday apprehended former Kaohsiung city councilor Liu Hsin-cheng (劉馨正), who was on the run for two years after being sentenced to 12 years in prison for corruption.
Liu was taken to Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office after his arrest for formal identification and processing, and was transported to start his jail term on Thursday.
Investigators have uncovered evidence of Liu receiving bribes from contractors totaling NT$2.4 million (US$76,817), when he was general manager of government-owned Hsinchu Gas Co from 2012 to 2014, the court filing said.
Photo: Taipei Times
In the first ruling in 2017, the Hsinchu District Court found Liu, then 62 years old, guilty of taking bribes as a civil servant in contravention of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
The court handed Liu a 12-year-six-month term and ordered him to pay back the NT$2.4 million in illicit proceeds to the state coffer.
After leaving the general manager position in 2014, Liu returned to his hometown in Kaohsiung’s Meinung District (美濃) to run in the municipal election for the the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). He was elected a Kaohsiung city councilor from 2014 to 2018, and remained in office while appealing his corruption case.
Liu fought all the way to the Supreme Court, and in a final verdict in December 2022, judges upheld the 12-year sentence with deprivation of civil rights for six years.
In a renewed investigation, judges gathered evidence and questioned witnesses to affirm the finding from the first ruling, on accounting books that Liu had met seven times with a contractor, surnamed Kuo (郭), undertaking project work for the gas company, who handed bribes to Liu ranging from NT$300,000 to NT$500,000.
Kuo at the time had strong links with the gas company, and obtained bids to install new gas pipes in houses, and conduct maintenance and repair works, along with public construction requiring new gas supply lines throughout Hsinchu County. Investigators found Kuo bribed Liu’s subordinates and other employees.
Owned and managed by the Hsinchu County Gas Administration, Hsinchu Gas Co officials and staff are considered civil servants, therefore Liu came under investigation and prosecution for corruption offenses.
Liu went into hiding following the Supreme Court’s final verdict in December 2022 and remained on the lam until his arrest on Wednesday by Taipei police.
He is also wanted in another case in which he was convicted for a six-month term for contravening the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), during his failed bid for re-election in 2018, Liu printed pamphlets defaming another candidate.
Named in the defamation lawsuit for violating election laws, Liu lost the case, but he appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, which in June last year upheld the verdict.
Prior to heading up Hsinchu Gas Co, Liu held posts as chief of Kaohsiung Economic Development and Public Works bureaus.
Liu also taught courses at Fu Jen Catholic University and National Open University.
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