Real estate tycoon Sheen released on extra bail after court ruling

Taipei, March 27 (CNA) Core Pacific Group Chairman Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京) was released on an additional NT$30 million (US$938,857) bail late Thursday night after being sentenced to 10 years in prison for bribery by the Taipei District Court earlier in the day.

The court also deprived Sheen of his civil rights for five years in the "Core Pacific City" case after ruling that he paid NT$52.5 million in bribes from 2017 to 2022 to Taipei City Councilor Ying Hsiao-wei (應曉薇) and NT$2.1 million in bribes in 2020 to then Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).

The payments, according to the court, were to get favorable treatment from the Taipei City government for Sheen's real estate development project, including allowing the project to have more floor space than regulations would normally permit.

Speaking to reporters after completing bail procedures at around 11 p.m., Sheen said he felt "deeply aggrieved" by the ruling.

He continued to plead his innocence, saying he suffered from numerous health ailments.

"The prosecutors, in targeting Ko, forced me to implicate him, causing me immense physical and mental suffering," he claimed.

According to the court's press release, Sheen intended to bribe officials to breach their duties and had seven Core Pacific Group employees withdraw company funds and each transfer NT$300,000 to a TPP political donation account controlled by Ko in March 2020.

It said text message exchanges between former Dingyue Development Corp. President Chu Yea-hu (朱亞虎), one of the seven individuals appointed by Sheen, and Lee Wen-tsung (李文宗), then director of Ko's mayoral office, indicated that Ko was aware of and received the NT$2.1 million.

After the Taipei District Court issued the ruling, a detention hearing was immediately held for Ko and three others, who had been released on bail during the trial.

The judges ruled that the original NT$180 million bail for Sheen and NT$35 million for Taipei City Councilor Ying were insufficient to prevent them from fleeing and ordered each of them to put up an additional NT$30 million in bail each.

Ying was sentenced to 15 years and six months in prison, along with a six-year deprivation of civil rights, for pressuring city government officials to facilitate approval of the Core Pacific City development project.

Ko, who was sentenced to 17 years in jail but later insisted on his innocence and said he would "not surrender," had his original bail conditions upheld. He is banned from traveling abroad by air or by sea, and is required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.