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Control Yuan
impeaches Lin Yi-shih
Staff writer, with CNA
The Control Yuan yesterday passed a proposal to impeach former Executive Yuan
secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世) for violating the law and gross malfeasance.
The proposal was passed overwhelmingly by 11 votes to one.
Its passage turns Lin over to the Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction
Commission to be punished.
The proposal said that Lin used his influence for personal gain and had not
declared his personal assets honestly, which violated laws governing the ethics
of public functionaries.
On April 30, Lin, 44, was sentenced by the Taipei District Court to seven years
and four months in prison for accepting bribes.
He was also fined NT$15.8 million (US$528,100) and stripped of his civil rights
for five years.
Lin was a top official in President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration and in
the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
He was appointed secretary-general of the Executive Yuan in February last year,
less than a month after losing his re-election bid as a legislator representing
the second district of Greater Kaohsiung.
The scandal broke in June last year when a local magazine reported that while
serving as a legislator in 2010, Lin accepted a bribe of NT$63 million to help a
private company, Ti Yung Co, secure a contract to buy slag from China Steel (CSC,
中鋼), a Greater Kaohsiung-based listed company in which the government has a
controlling stake.
The bribe was paid by Ti Yung Co owner Chen Chi-hsiang (陳啟祥).
Between February and March last year, after he began working in the Executive
Yuan, Lin allegedly demanded a further NT$83 million from Chen.
When Chen refused to pay, Lin allegedly pressured China Steel to stop supplying
slag to Ti Yung.
Chen subsequently exposed Lin by talking to the media and prosecutors.
His own indictment on bribery charges has been suspended in return for his
cooperation with the authorities.
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