A former judge on the Taiwan High Court’s Tainan branch has been impeached for inappropriate contacts with a businessman involved in multiple civil and criminal lawsuits from 1997-2017, the Control Yuan said Thursday.
In a statement, the Control Yuan said its members voted unanimously March 3 to impeach Tseng Ping-shan (???), who served on the court’s Tainan branch from June 1997 to December 2013.
The Control Yuan is the top government body responsible for investigating and censuring improper behavior by public officials or public agencies.
During his term in office, Tseng was found to have socialized with the former chairman of the textile company Chia Her Group Wong Maw-jang (???) and accepted gifts from him.
Based on evidence collected from a diary kept by Wong, the Control Yuan said Tseng also met the businessman at his home on Aug. 9, 2001, to provide him with legal advice about a litigation case that he was involved in at the time.
According to Taiwan’s highest watchdog body, the former judge also owned shares in Chia Yuen Real Estate Development Co., a subsidiary of Chia Her Group from 1995-1998.
Despite being aware of Wong’s legal problems, Tseng still provided legal advice, while continuing to interact with him and accept gifts, the Control Yuan said.
Although Tseng did not preside over Wong’s cases, his actions clearly violate the Public Functionary Service Act, the Judges Act, as well as ethical regulations and guidelines for judges, it explained.
After impeaching Tseng, the Control Yuan on Thursday said it transferred the case to the Disciplinary Court for trial.
The relationship between Tseng and Wong was discovered during a recent Judicial Yuan investigation into allegations of corruption against Shih Mu-chin (???), a former head of what is now the Disciplinary Court, and Shih’s relationship with Wong.
The case has drawn considerable media attention because Shih is the highest-ranking judicial official to be impeached in Taiwan’s history, despite not being found guilty of corruption.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel