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The High Court heard Ke Wenzhe’s political donations and other cases. Ke Wenzhe denied all crimes, while Li Wenzhong pleaded guilty to breach of trust in the payment of approximately 2.1 million yuan in salaries by the Zhongwang Foundation to four people. The case will continue with multiple defendants in the future.
in front of the stagepopular party chairmanke wenzhe In cases involving political donations and other matters, he denied committing the crime a second time; Co-defendant Li Wenzhong today pleaded guilty to breach of trust in the payment of salaries of approximately NT$2.1 million to four people, including Huang Xinxiang, by the Zhongwang Foundation; Li Wenjuan changed his plea before appearing in court.
The Taiwan High Court this afternoon held the second hearing of Ke Wenzhe’s case involving the city of Beijing and political donations. It summoned Li Wenzhong, then the chief financial officer of Ke Wenzhe’s campaign headquarters, Li Wenzhong, then the chairman of the Zhongwang Foundation, and Li Wenjuan, the head of Muke Public Relations and Marketing Co., Ltd., to appear in court for the preparation of criminal facts related to political donations.
Li Wenzhong’s defense lawyer said in court that he had submitted a written statement denying the crime of public welfare embezzlement. As for the breach of trust of the Zhongwang Foundation, he only pleaded guilty to the salary expenses of four people, including Gu Min, Lin Baochun, Xu Ziyu and Huang Xinxiang, amounting to about 2.1 million yuan.
The lawyer explained that since Huang Xinxiang and the other four admitted that they were not actually involved in the work, there was no room for dispute in this part, so Li Wenzong decided to plead guilty; As for the remaining nine people, they worked for the Zhongwang Foundation, and the two parties had a genuine employment relationship. The Foundation was supposed to pay the salary, so refusing this share amounts to a breach of trust.
It is worth noting that when Ke Wenzhe appeared in court for the second time, he denied all the criminal facts alleged by the prosecutor. This is different from Li Wenzong’s attitude today when he pleaded guilty to some facts of breach of trust.
According to the first instance judgment of the Taipei District Court, between December 2022 and August 2022, Ke Wenzhe and Li Wenzong formally hired 13 people who were originally involved in Ke Wenzhe’s presidential campaign as employees of the Zhongwang Foundation, paying monthly salaries ranging from 45,000 yuan to 120,000 yuan, a total of 8,271,095 yuan.
Beijing Institute of Technology believes that the Zhongwang Foundation was established to support the underprivileged and engage in social welfare. However, Ke Wenzhe and Li Wenzhong used foundation funds to pay salaries of campaign staff that had nothing to do with public welfare business, which violated the foundation’s mandate and charter.
The first instance stated that the relevant salary was 60% of the total expenses of the Zhongwang Foundation in 2023, thereby becoming a treasury for Wenzhe’s arbitrary personal use of the Foundation’s assets. Therefore, both were found jointly guilty of breach of trust, and each was sentenced to two years and six months in prison.
On the other hand, public prosecutors Qiu Wenzhong, Liang Guangzhong and Wang Zhenyuan reported that Ke Wenzhong and Li Wenzhong used 1 million yuan in political donations to invest in a new media profit-making venture planned by Qiu Fusheng, and related contracts could be used as evidence.
The prosecutor believed that political donations could not be used for commercial purposes according to the law, and that the first instance finding of not guilty in this part was inappropriate, and requested the High Court to cancel the original verdict and change the verdict to guilty.
Lawyer Li Wenzhong argued that the acquittal in this part of the first trial was not an error. I have no objection to the testimony of Sun Dingjun and Huang Shanshan, the head of Kaifeng Company, but I emphasize that Sun Dingjun’s donation through Huang Shanshan was to Ke Wenzhe personally, not to the People’s Party.
On March 26 this year, the North Court’s first instance judgment found that Ke Wenzhe was sentenced to 13 years in prison and deprived of public rights for six years for violating his position by taking bribes. He was also found guilty of embezzlement of public welfare and two offenses of breach of trust. The combined sentence was 17 years’ imprisonment and deprivation of public rights for six years.
Li Wenzhong was sentenced to 3 years and 2 months for the crime of joint public welfare embezzlement and 2 years and 6 months for breach of trust. The combined sentence should be 4 years and 6 months; He was not guilty of the part where he was accused of violating his duties and taking bribes. Li Wenjuan was convicted of public welfare embezzlement and filing false accounting documents, and the merger should be implemented in April 2 years.
The High Court will divide the entire case into three parts: political donations, profiteering and bribery. The defendants are scheduled to summon Wei Jing Group Chairman Shen Qingjing and Taipei City Councilor Ying Xiaowei on November 9, and then summon Ke Wenzhe to appear in court on November 16.
