Taipei: Hsinchu County Magistrate Yang Wen-ke was acquitted Monday in a corruption case linked to a residential development in Zhubei, but two former county officials were sentenced to prison for their involvement. According to Focus Taiwan, the Hsinchu District Court's ruling found Yang not guilty due to insufficient evidence linking him to the charges. The case originated from a ground collapse at the Zhubei residential development's construction site, operated by Fong Yi Construction Co., on April 3, 2022. Between June 2022 and April 2023, five additional sinkholes appeared on nearby roads, causing significant damage to a small truck and a Tesla electric vehicle. In response, Yang established a special task force in July 2022 to investigate these incidents. However, construction at the site was halted and resumed multiple times in the subsequent months. In its decision to acquit Yang, the court explained that the special task force was merely an advisory group for the Public Works Department, which retai ned the final authority over construction resumption. Despite this, the court found that the department's then-director, Chiang Liang-yuan, and official Huang Yu-ssu permitted Fong Yi to continue work during a suspension, resulting in 77 days of illegal construction. Chiang was sentenced to six years and six months in prison, along with four years of deprivation of civil rights, for profiteering under the Anti-Corruption Act and possessing unexplained assets. Huang received a sentence of five years and two months in prison and was ordered to be deprived of his civil rights for three years. The court ordered the confiscation of NT$14.83 million (US$461,248) in suspicious assets from Chiang, citing his failure to provide a truthful explanation for their origin, thereby undermining the public servant asset declaration system. The court emphasized that Chiang and Huang, as public officials, were expected to uphold the law but instead allowed the project to benefit Fong Yi. The rulings can still be appealed. Th e two former officials and Magistrate Yang were indicted by the Hsinchu District Prosecutors Office for alleged violations of the Anti-Corruption Act in July 2024. Prosecutors accused the construction firm of violating regulations by shortening steel piles to save costs and using substandard materials, leading to collapses and sinkholes. Prosecutors also alleged that Yang, aware of these issues, accepted benefits from Fong Yi, including using a property as his campaign headquarters, and instructed Chiang to approve construction resumption. In a separate statement, Yang expressed regret over the convictions of Chiang and Huang, supporting their appeals for innocence. The Hsinchu prosecutors' office stated it would consider whether to appeal after reviewing the full written ruling.
Menu