Taiwan president Ko faces charges of bribery, misuse of donations | Political Affairs

Former Taipei manager Ko Wen-je has been indicted on charges of property development and campaign finance scandals.

Former Taiwanese presidential candidate Ko Wen-je has been indicted on charges of accepting bribes and misusing political donations.

Ko was indicted by prosecutors on Thursday following an investigation into allegations of corruption involving the redevelopment of a shopping mall in Taipei while he was mayor of the Taiwanese capital and irregularities in his campaign for the 2024 presidential election.

The Taipei District Prosecutors Office said in a statement that it is seeking a 28-and-a-half-year prison sentence for Ko, who is accused of accepting T$17.1 million ($522,392) in bribes and embezzling more than T$68 million in donations.

Prosecutors also announced charges against several members of Ko’s Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) for misusing political donations.

Ko, who served as mayor of Taipei from 2014 to 2022, previously denied wrongdoing in a housing development case following his arrest in August, although he admitted misreporting of campaign funds.

A court in Taipei the following month ruled that Ko, a trained surgeon, should be released from custody as prosecutors did not meet the level of “high probability” he committed a crime.

Ko, who came third in January’s presidential election with about 27% of the vote, was widely seen as a candidate for the 2028 presidential election.

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

The party worked with the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang to pass a series of controversial legal reforms that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party says are aimed at curbing President William Lai Ching-te’s ability to rule the island.