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Fountain Valley man acquitted in Taiwan probe
Family jubilation is short lived as Taiwanese prosecutor appeals decision.
A Fountain Valley man hoping to put a corruption indictment in Taiwan behind him and return to the United States will now have to wait until a higher court rules on the case.
A three-judge lower court acquitted Ching Jyh Shieh, 66, who faced up to 15 years in jail, of corruption charges, but a prosecutor has appealed the decision.
Shieh had given up his U.S. citizenship to return to his native Taiwan in 1995 and quickly rose to prominence, becoming a deputy minister and a presidential appointee to the country's National Science Council.
But in 2006 he quit his post and was jailed for 59 days as part of an investigation that ended in charges that he steered a contract worth more than $200 million to a friend. The contract, awarded by a science council committee that Shieh led, was to build a buffer around a government industrial park in the southern city of Tainan to dampen vibrations from a high-speed rail line.
Nine of the 10 people indicted as part of the probe were acquitted on July 30, according to published reports and Shieh's family.
"While we all felt jubilant about the acquittal verdict from the lower court at that day of announcement, the embarrassed prosecutor wasted no time to express that they would appeal and he did just that … right before the deadline," Ching Shieh said in an e-mail, adding that the appeal is routine.
Hsu Hung-chang, owner of the winning bidder Sheus Technologies Corp, was sentenced to five months in prison, while the judges decided to drop all charges against the rest of the defendants, according to the Taipei Times.
"There was insufficient evidence to prove Shieh's guilt. Therefore the court had no option other than to rule in favor of him," the Times said the verdict read.
Shieh also was found not guilty on another charge of releasing the Republic of China's "national secrets of non-military nature," which his son Perry Shieh said refers to a bidding document that the prosecution claimed his father released to Sheus Technologies before the document was public.
"The judge has determined that this document cannot in any way be designated a secret, national or otherwise, as all companies that were bidding for the project had access to this document at the time the prosecutor said it was a secret," said Perry Shieh, a neurosurgeon from Westwood.
Ching Shieh and his family have maintained throughout that he got caught up in a political vendetta against the former administration of Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Chung Wen Lee, a spokeswoman with the Tainan District Prosecutor's Office, said the case is a criminal matter and not politically motivated.
She confirmed in an e-mail that an appeal was filed on Aug. 15 and her office awaits the high court's verdict.
Ching Shieh said the prosecutor has appealed only his and one other person's case to the higher court.
The action implies "that the case is very weak (on) the prosecution side," Shieh wrote in an e-mail, adding that he expects the high court to rule in his favor because the three judge lower court had done such a thorough job. Its ruling was 148 pages, he said.
"Each encounter has its good and bad parts," wrote Shieh, reflecting on his experience in Taiwan and leaving Orange County. "I look at this incident as a good experience of my life. It did create uncomfortable period for people, friends and relatives surrounding me, but the ups and downs are (what) life's about."
Shieh said he is determined to return stateside and retire in Orange County, which he called a "heavenly good place to live." He and his wife, Connie, who still lives in their Fountain Valley home, have been married nearly 40 years and have two grown children.
His family has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on court costs, Perry Shieh said. And, it is unsure whether his father can leave Taiwan while his case is on appeal. It could be months before the high court issues a ruling.
Read the court decision story in the Taipei Times.
Learn more about Shieh's case at his family's Web site at www.supportching.com.
