The High Prosecutors’ Office this week announced plans to reopen an investigation into three civil servants for potential involvement in the Keelung E-Square Mall (基隆東岸商場) case.
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office earlier decided not to charge three civil servants, surnamed Chen (陳), Ho (賀) and Chang (張), with concealing public rental space income to benefit Lucky Parking Co (大日開發), although Chen and Ho were charged with bribery and leaking confidential information.
The indictment alleged that a man surnamed Su (蘇) — head of Lucky Parking, which previously operated E-Square’s parking lot — gave Chen bribe money totaling NT$950,000 (US$29,459) from 2018 to 2022 when he was a temporary employee of the Keelung City Government.
Photo: Lu Hsien-hsiu, Taipei Times
In 2019, Ho, then an employee of the city’s Department of Transportation, allegedly leaked information to Lucky Parking after learning that the company was under review for corruption, prosecutors said.
In 2016, Su allegedly underreported Lucky Parking’s annual revenue from the parking lot, exempting the company from royalty payments totaling NT$4.86 million to the city, they said.
Chen was charged under the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), Ho was charged under the Criminal Code for leaking confidential information, and Su and nine other Lucky Parking employees were charged under the Anti-Corruption Act, as well as the Business Entity Accounting Act (商業會計法) and Tax Collection Act (稅捐稽徵法).
The Keeling office also found that Ho and Zhang allegedly agreed to conceal rental income for Lucky Parking, although since it it was not clear whether they had the intention to illegally benefit from such an act, prosecutors declined to press charges against the three men for profit-seeking and instead referred the case to the High Prosecutors’ Office.
The High Prosecutors’ Office concluded that additional clarification was required and returned the case to the Keeling office.
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