(Bloomberg) — Ko Wen-je, a former Taiwanese presidential candidate, has been indicted on corruption prices tied to a number of scandals, together with a property redevelopment challenge throughout his tenure as Taipei mayor.
The Taipei District Prosecutors Workplace proposed a sentence exceeding 28 years for bribery and misappropriation of political donations, a spokesperson stated at a briefing on Thursday. In addition they need Ko fined NT$50 million ($1.5 million).
Ko has denied wrongdoing and stated he wasn’t concerned within the choice to grant Core Pacific Group extra ground space within the redevelopment challenge. The conglomerate’s chairman, Sheen Ching-jing, who denies wrongdoing, can also be dealing with prosecution and, doubtlessly, 17 years in jail.
The Taiwan Individuals’s Occasion — which Ko co-founded in 2019 — denounced the indictment in a press briefing on Thursday.
“In the present day, Taiwan is experiencing judicial injustice, with politics and state equipment getting used to persecute political opponents,” TPP’s spokesperson Chen Chih-han stated. The indictment “lacks monetary proof and concrete proof, relying solely on pieced-together claims to destroy political adversaries.”
The social gathering and its bigger ally, the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang, maintain a joint majority within the legislature. They’ve pushed by a number of authorized modifications that DPP supporters say are supposed to hinder President Lai Ching-te’s means to manipulate the island, one of many important flashpoints in US-China relations.
Ko’s case marks the most recent in a sequence of corruption indictments in opposition to politicians. In August, former vice premier Cheng Wen-tsan of Lai’s ruling Democratic Progressive Occasion was charged for alleged graft.
Ko completed third within the 2024 presidential election with about 27% of the vote, behind Lai and KMT candidate Hou Yu-ih. Ko this month introduced he’s resigning as TPP chief.
–With help from Cindy Wang.
(Provides indictment of firm chairman in third paragraph and TPP remark from fourth.)
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