Ko, Taiwanese presidential candidate, accused of corruption and donation abuse | Political information

Former Taipei main Ko Wen-je has been indicted over scandals associated to actual property growth and election marketing campaign financing.

Former Taiwan presidential candidate Ko Wen-je has been indicted for allegedly accepting bribes and misusing political donations.

Ko was indicted by prosecutors on Thursday following investigations into allegations of corruption within the redevelopment of a shopping center in Taipei whereas he was mayor of the Taiwanese capital and marketing campaign finance irregularities throughout his 2024 presidential marketing campaign.

The Taipei District Prosecutor’s Workplace stated in an announcement it was searching for a 28-and-a-half-year jail sentence for Ko, accused of accepting NT$17.1 million ($522,392) in bribes. -wine and misappropriation of donations of greater than 68 million Taiwan {dollars}.

Prosecutors additionally introduced fees towards a number of members of Ko’s Taiwan Folks’s Occasion (TPP) for misuse of political donations.

Ko, who served as Taipei mayor from 2014 to 2022, beforehand denied any wrongdoing in an actual property growth case following his arrest in August, though he admitted to misreporting marketing campaign funds.

A Taipei courtroom dominated the next month that Ko, a surgeon by coaching, must be launched as a result of prosecutors failed to satisfy standards that there was a “sturdy chance” that he had dedicated a criminal offense.

Ko, who got here third in January’s presidential election with about 27 p.c of the vote, was broadly thought-about a contender for the presidency in 2028.

The TPP, co-founded by Ko in 2019, holds eight seats within the 113-member Legislative Yuan.

The get together labored with the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang to push by a sequence of controversial authorized adjustments that the ruling Democratic Progressive Occasion says are geared toward limiting President William Lai Ching-te’s means to manipulate the island.