Former Kinmen County commissioner Lee Wo-shih (李沃士) has been sentenced to seven years, six months in prison for accepting a NT$1 million (US$30,931) bribe from a prospective tenderer.
The May 29 ruling by the Kinmen branch of the Fujian High Court also stripped Lee of his civil rights for five years and confiscated all illegally obtained funds.
Lee, who served as county commissioner from 2010 to 2014, was first convicted of contraventions of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) in 2017 by the Fujian Kinmen District Court.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
The district court found that Lee had accepted a bribe from a technology company chair surnamed Hsu (徐) during his campaign.
Lee then pressured Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor Inc to lower its prices to pave the way for Hsu’s tender for a baijiu sales project, the court said.
Lee acted for the benefit of Hsu after receiving his campaign support, such as selecting a general manager and sales manager for Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor that Hsu preferred, the district court concluded, before handing Lee an eight-year prison sentence.
However, a ruling by the Kinmen branch of the Fujian High Court quashed Lee’s conviction. Prosecutors appealed to the Supreme Court, which remanded it back to the Fujian High Court.
The ruling can be appealed.
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