TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Former Kuomintang Taipei City Councilor Lai Su-ru was sentenced to nine years in prison Wednesday for soliciting a NT$10 million (US$315,000) bribe from the developers of the Twin Towers project.
Lai was not only a prominent politician in the capital, but also served as the party office manager for then-President Ma Ying-jeou and represented the party several times as an attorney.
Her own attorney in the case said she would appeal Wednesday’s Taiwan High Court ruling.
In 2011, a group which was bidding to build the Twin Towers near Taipei Railway Station sought to use political influence to advance its cause, reports said. Lai, who was one of the conveners on a key relevant committee at the city council, reportedly wanted NT$15 million (US$472,000) from the developers in return for persuading other city councilors to approve their case, prosecutors argued.
The developers, through a middleman, bargained down the sum to NT$10 million to be paid in three stages, with the first, NT$1 million, changing hands in November 2011, prosecutors said.
Lai went on to change regulations in the developers’ favor, but her colleagues removed the changes, leading the developers to refuse further payments to her. In November 2012, she returned the money to the middleman, but the transaction was discovered by prosecutors who at the time had begun investigating the Twin Towers project over other allegations.
Lai maintained her innocence, saying the payment had been a political donation in the run-up to her 2011 election campaign, and not a bribe.