Two Taiwanese parliamentarians and 11 businessmen were indicted Thursday for allegedly swindling 1.25 billion Taiwan dollars (38 million US) in a land deal fraud, a prosecutor said.
Prosecutor Chang Wen-cheng said he had charged Kuomintang (KMT) legislator Wang ling-lin with forgery, breach of trust and violation of business accounting law and sought a prison term of four years and 10 months.
Wang, a son of Rebar group chairman Wang You-theng, is an entrepreneur as well as being chairman of Taiwan's general chamber of commerce.
The prosecutor charged another KMT lawmaker, Tsai Hou, who also runs Minchung Daily News in southern Taiwan, with breach of trust for allegedly assisting Wang in the land fraud, asking for imprisonment of three years.
Wang, in his capacity as head of Far Eastern Silo and Shipping Corp. (FESSC), paid 845 million dollars for a piece of land worth only an estimated 590 million dollars from Chu Chien-tsung in 1998, the prosecutor said.
Investigations showed the 255 million dollars excess was later transferred to bank accounts of another company affiliated to Wang's business, he said.
A year later, Wang sold the same land to Taiwan Development Trust Corp. in collaboration with the company's chairman Liu Chin-piao and its president Tsai Tsung-jung for 1.83 billion dollars through the help of Tsai Hao.
Chu, Liu and Tsai were among other 11 people, including land brokers, charged with forgery and breach of trust. The prosecutor had asked that jail terms from 10 months to three years to be imposed.
The prosecutor said some one billion dollars had been swindled from the companies in the land's second sale and the money shared by the defendants.
Both Wang and Tsai immediately denied the charges.
Rebar group is a leading conglomerate with interests in banking, financial services, cable television, multi-media, construction, food and others.
FESSC had been restructured into an Internet firm named ET Internet Technology Corporation -- TAIPEI (AFP)
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