12/25/2006: CHARGES FINALLY FILED
Five months after Dr. Shieh's release from detention, nearly 1 year after the investigation was initiated, four months after the project was complete, and one month before the High Speed Railway is due to be fully operational, Tainan prosecutors announced the indictment of 10 individuals, including 9 referees they allege were conspiring to steer the Vibration Reduction Project to Sheus Technologies, Inc.
On December 25, the prosecution held a news conference announcing the indictment of 10 people in connection with the high-speed railway case. They indicted all 9 voting members of the committee that reviewed the project, including Dr. Shieh, as well as indicting Sheu of Sheus Technologies--the winning bidder. These charges were announced directly to the press without any of indictees or people involved being informed beforehand. Furthermore, the prosecution has essentially admitted their own political bias when they pejoratively referred to Dr. Shieh's overseas supporters as "independence cronies."
The prosecution, citing charges of favoritism against all 10 indictees, asked that Dr. Shieh be jailed for 15 years as well as be fined approximately 1 million US dollars. For the other 8 voting members of the committee (made up of various engineering experts, academicians, as well as a consulting lawyer specializing in government acquisition contracts) they asked for jail time ranging between 5-7 years and 100,000 US dollars in fine. The prosecution asked Sheu be jailed for 12 years and pay a 15 million US dollar fine.
No charges of bribery have been made as no evidence of bribery has been found. The allegations against the defendants are for favoritism--that is, willingly steering the project to the winning bidder without reciprocal benefit, (e.g. some sort of "kick-back").
Furthermore, the prosecution is alleging that the project was expensive and useless, because it could not achieve the 48 decibel requirement that was originally requested by Science Park clients. They allege that the committee and Dr. Shieh pushed for the project to go through such that they could steer the project to Sheu, although without any benefit to themselves. The decision of what is considered effective, however, should be made by a panel of experts (i.e. the evaluation committee) rather than a panel of lawyers who are fishing for a reason to prosecute someone. It has been made clear from the beginning that the 48 decibel figure was the ambient background vibration levels at the time the project was conceived. It served as a goal rather than a formal requirement, as background vibrations are sometimes higher than 48 decibels and it is not possible to reduce vibrations lower than background ambient levels. Furthermore, the necessity of the project will be further reinforced when the full report on the efficacy of vibration reduction is released at the end of January 2007. Preliminary measurements on the efficacy of the project demonstrate that the system is highly effective at reducing vibrations from the high speed railway to nearly 48 decibels.
The prosecution is basing their allegation that the project was unneccessary on testimony from an individual who speculates that the committee members were selected by Sheu (the winning bidder). Not only is the statement false, it is not substantiated with evidence and is therefore hearsay.
It goes without saying that a charge insisting 9 highly reputable experts and academicians in engineering and law colluded to fabricate this project and demonstrate favoritism without any reciprocal benefit is absurd. Most importantly, the job is already finished, preliminary measurements are very favorable, and the science park clients are happy. If there is any doubt, we will find out next month if the committee made the right choice.
Please check back for frequent updates as we will be updating this website as information comes in.
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