Prosecutors have listed former Taipei mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as a suspect in a corruption probe relating to the Core Pacific City (京華城) shopping mall redevelopment and the Beitou Shilin Science Park (北投士林科技園區) project.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday confirmed the investigation after receiving complaints from third parties alleging misconduct, illegal profiteering, and questionable negotiation and approval procedures on the two projects in contravention of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
The development came after more documents, meeting records and other evidence surfaced, and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors set up two investigation committees with the authority to call upon Ko and city government officials to question their involvement.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
In the Core Pacific City shopping mall redevelopment project in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), Ko allegedly had overseen the negotiations and signed an agreement to increase the floor area ratio (FAR) from 392 percent to 840 percent, which would allow the mall’s owner, Core Pacific Group (威京集團), to derive extra financial gains of more than NT$40 billion (US$1.23 billion), DPP Taipei city councilors Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) and Chien Shu-pei (簡舒培) said.
“This is the key evidence showing that Ko abused his authority to allow a large corporation to illegally benefit,” Hsu said.
Core Pacific Group applied to dismantle the mall, which had been losing money, to build combined commercial and luxury residential buildings, and requested the city government to grant a much higher than normal FAR of 840 percent, she said.
Increased FAR is usually granted as an incentive in urban renewal projects to permit more floor area, but usually at 130 to 150 percent.
“The 840 percent is the highest ever in city history; no other landowner or business has come close to getting so much,” Hsu said, adding that it amounted to Ko giving Core Pacific Group more than 1,000 ping (3,306m2) for free.
“We have many city residents who have applied for an urban renewal project and they cannot even get 1 ping at old building for 1 ping at the new building, and only a few get a slightly higher FAR, but Ko’s approval of 840 percent means Core Pacific Group was able to trade in 1 ping and get 4 ping for the new redevelopment project,” she said.
In the other case, Ko is suspected of using illicit means to favor Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) winning 50-year surface rights to plots T17 and T18 at the Beitou Shilin Science Park without needing an investment plan.
Chien said after construction work began at the science park, the city government posted public tenders for plots T16, T17 and T18 in 2019.
Shin Kong Life Insurance secured the latter two plots, despite not having an investment plan to attract science and technology companies, while other bidders allegedly had submitted higher bids, she said.
Chien alleged that Ko was looking for financial support from large corporations for TPP candidates’ election campaigns, while the science park deal led to Ko naming Cynthia Wu (吳欣盈), a granddaughter of Shin Kong Group’s founder, on the party’s legislators-at-large list.
She later served as a TPP legislator from 2020 to January, then ran alongside Ko as the vice presidential candidate in January’s presidential election.
Taipei prosecutors said they are coordinating with Ministry of Justice Agency Against Corruption to investigate.
KMT city councilors submitted materials to the the Control Yuan and demanded an investigation into Ko.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and