Lin Chih-hao implicated in Taisugar case

In a third scandal implicating the lawyer, the expose specialist legislator said Lin, while serving as secretary-general of the Taiwan Sugar Industry Foundation, forced Taisugar to give it up for the president.

Lin quit as board supervisor of the Taiwan Fertilizer Company Wednesday in an infighting over the unsuccessful lease of its three-hectare plot in Nankang to the Teco group. He was also alleged to broker the Sogo department store takeover scandal.

First lady Wu Shu-chen is said to have accepted Sogo gift vouchers to help the Far Eastern group take over the department store chain.

The lawyer was first retained as attorney for Taisugar, which owned the foundation, Chiu said. “Then,” he quoted a top Taisugar executive as saying, “he was appointed secretary-general of the foundation to effect the takeover for President Chen.”

Both Taisugar and Taifertilizer were state-owned enterprises until their recent privatization. The government owns a controlling share of each company and appoints its board chairman and president.

The foundation has been renamed the Naomichi Takechi Fund.

Chiu claimed the name was changed to evade tax.

Chang Yu-hui, Takechi president, denied the charges.

He said Lin was Taisugar’s legal consultant, who served concurrently as Takechi secretary-general. “Lin resigned on July 19 last year,” he added.

“The Taisugar executive who was a whistle blower is trying to frame me,” Chang said. He was president and then board chairman of Taisugar before heading the Fund, named after its Japanese donor.

Naomichi Takechi, after retirement from Taisugar during Japanese colonial rule over Taiwan, donated 200,000 yen to create the Fund to help finance research in sugarcane farming and sugar refining.

After the Second World War, the Fund was made an affiliate of Taisugar.

“But,” Chang said, “the Fund has always been independent.” He denied Taisugar accepted donations from the Takechi Fund, which now has assets totaling NT$3.2 billion.

In particular, Chang said, he was Taisugar president and board chairman before 2000. “I owe President Chen no favors,” he pointed out.

Chen was elected president in 2000.

“How should I help Lin take over the Fund for the president?” Chang asked.

Yu Cheng-hsien, Taisugar board chairman, said Monday he would get the Takechi Fund back, if it was an affiliate.

After he was appointed to head Taisugar, Yu found “problems” about the affiliation of the Fund.

“The problems would be straightened out,” said Yu, who is a member of President Chen’s retinue en route to Latin America on a state visit. “We will recover it, if it belongs to us,” he added.

Lin Chih-hao was not available for comment.

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