Taoyuan District Court on Tuesday handed down multiyear prison sentences to two former Taoyuan International Airport Corp. (TIAC) employees convicted of soliciting bribes from a contractor during the expansion of the airport’s Terminal 2.

Lin Wen-chen (???), former director of the TIAC’s Construction Office, and engineer Wu Chun-tsung (???) were sentenced to 10 years, and five years and two months in prison, respectively, for bribes they arranged during the project’s bidding process in 2016.

According to court testimony, Lin and Wu approached NewAsia Construction, one of the companies bidding to work on the expansion, to solicit bribes totaling NT$6 million (US$205,702) — around 3 percent of the NT$206 million project cost — to guarantee that their proposal was selected.

The two ultimately received NT$2.9 million in bribes — of which NT$1.8 million went to Lin and NT$1.1 million went to Wu — before their actions were discovered, the court said.

Meanwhile, during bidding for a road maintenance project, Lin agreed to provide another company with documents from previous successful bids, and to structure part of the project as a limited tender, in return for NT$1.3 million in cash.

However, Lin was caught before the money could change hands, according to the court.

In a verdict delivered on Tuesday, the court found both men guilty of corruption, while also convicting Lin of disclosing secret documents on matters unrelated to national security.

In imposing the sentences, the court noted that while Lin had confessed to his crimes and shown remorse, Wu at several points during the trial tried to shift the responsibility for his actions to others.

Still, as both men had surrendered their illicit gains and did not have previous criminal records, they qualified for reduced sentences, the court reasoned.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel