Taiwanese prosecutors on Thursday indicted a former Taipei mayor and former presidential candidate on charges of corruption and misuse of political donations and said they were seeking a 28-year prison sentence.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) leader Ko Wen-Jie ran as a third-party candidate in January’s presidential election and won nearly a quarter of the vote.
But he has been embroiled in a number of scandals in recent months, including a corruption case involving a property development that allegedly took place during his second term as mayor of Taipei from 2018 to 2022.
On Thursday, Ko was indicted in the property case, as well as misappropriation of donations to the TPP and a charity foundation and breach of trust, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Prosecutors said they were seeking a combined prison sentence of 28 years and six months for Ko, who has been detained pending investigation since September.
The property scandal concerns Core Pacific City, a redevelopment project that saw a substantial increase in its floor area ratio — done with city government approval that allegedly benefited developer Shen Chung-Jung.
“Kou personally received $15 million in bribe money” from Shen in 2022 and pocketed another NT$2.1 million from his company, deputy chief prosecutor Cao Ai-shu told reporters.
Shen allegedly made illegal gains of more than NT$20 billion in the Core Pacific City project, a court said earlier in ordering his detention.
“During the investigation, Ko found torn notes in his office, instructing associates to flee the country,” Cao said.
“His post-offense behavior was also considered poor.”
Prosecutors also accused Ko of embezzling and co-embezzling more than NT$60 million in political donations to his party in two cases and misappropriating NT$8.27 million in donations to the Social Welfare Foundation for his presidential campaign.
Ko has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the property case.
But he has apologized to his followers after allegations of misreporting of campaign funds used during the presidential election emerged.
Huang Kuo Chang, a senior TPP official and head of the party’s legislative caucus, strongly criticized the indictment, which he called “politically motivated” and “political revenge”.
“The indictment relied on vague wording, accusing Ko of bribery without providing concrete evidence,” he told reporters.
Huang also insisted that “not a single dollar from the political donation account went into Wen Jie’s pocket”.
Ko has been on personal leave from his party leadership role since September and resigned as chairman in a letter sent from prison earlier this month.
Asked about the letter at a news conference on Thursday, the TPP said it would not elect a new chairman.
During the January elections, the TPP won eight seats in Taiwan’s disputed parliament, gaining kingmaker status in the legislature.