He is going back into detention apparently, high court reversed the decision and ordered him back to questioning under detention
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Looking for some weekend reading? C Donovan Smith writing at the Taipei Times is here to help, with two more “deep dives” into the implosion of the TPP and Ko’s dramatic fall from grace.
The feature articles below are numbers four and five in a series, with at least two more coming!
Guy
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It’s not been a very good week for Ko, has it. 
Guy
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My partner has been gleefully giving me running updates on this saga since things became news. He was particularly impressed to learn that following his arrest, Ko got to sleep in a non air-conditioned cell and then complained!!!
Now I know why Ko had that smirk on his face most of the time that the Press were around him in the past. He was probably thinking “I have got you all by the short and curlies” - now its his turn. …… serves him right.
Oh how the mighty fall!!!
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This radioactive piece of shit being in jail is easily the best news this year. His supporters’ and wife’s cries and tears were balm for my ears. Incontinence in jail is exactly what he deserves lol.
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Ko’s detention (waiting trial) has reportedly been extended. Here’s one report on this development:
And how are his supporters responding? C Donovan Smith writing at the Taipei Times has a deep dive on the topic, in which he presents as neutrally as possible what others are saying before delivering an absolutely brutal punchline at the end. If you read one thing today, make it this:
Guy
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No matter how strangely shambolic Ko’s descent has appeared, the details in this new feature from C Donovan Smith in today’s Taipei Times will make it all seem even odder.
One snippet of strangeness among many:
[R]eportedly prosecutors found proof that Ko had ordered his trusted aid Hsu Chih-yu (許芷瑜) — nicknamed “Orange” (as in the fruit) — to skedaddle to Japan when prosecutors started rounding up people in late August by reading the imprint left by his pen on the sheets of paper in the notepad below the one he wrote on. She is now a fugitive suspected of being Ko’s bagman and Taiwan has canceled her passport, but she is now thought to be in Australia on a Vanuatu passport.
Guy
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What a fall from grace
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Well he delivered on his election promise of punishing the corrupt
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How much do you guys think this is political payback and Ko is the same or even less corrupt than some other officials, or he really is badly corrupt?
I haven’t followed this closely so I’m wondering how much of any money involved has been traced back to him and his wife and what kind of sums are we talking about here ?
I also find it a bit surprising that he would get sucked into corruption as I reckon he wasn’t at the start.
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Seems fishy to me but I really don’t know. In a country where politicians sometimes serve time for corruption maybe his arrogance was a factor or he thought he would become the president and could get away with some stuff.
When I looked at the earlier allegations when he purchased the office space it looked like legitimate use of campaign funds where I think a percentage end up being owned by the politician.
The other real estate development payouts seemed like standard but low level corruption.
Asking for a long sentence, imo
But I’ve not been following closely either.
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Without money and under the table dealings involved, Ko’s dramatic u-turn on multiple issues, from his attitude towards China, social housing, Far Glory and mega land developers in general, would be very hard to justify. It honestly makes the most sense that he did decide to trade with the land developers for either support or actual money in his pocket. Maybe he was doing so to fund his party, maybe he was really just pocketing some of those money, either way, he was trading properties belonging to the people of Taipei City to further his own ambitions or profit.
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I think they are all fiddling this stuff one way or another but now Ko is getting hammered bad.
There’s the infamous James Soong who always seemed to have a bag of campaign fund loot left over from his numerous failed campaigns. Was that legal you know what I mean… And this is a common story I believe.
Tsai Ying Wen acquired numerous land plots in Neihu in fortuitous timing. I guess it’s how you go about using the information you have in front of you and playing within the grey areas
During Hao Long Bing’s mayorship loads of really really dodgy stuff happened , in particular related to the Taipei Dome project , but did he ever go to jail ?
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You can decide for yourself. Some specific dollar amounts in the story below.
Guy
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Enjoying this story so much. Hope it will happen soon somehow to Mr. Ma the Chinese from Kowloon and the Korean Fish.
Low level corruption? The extra floor space at the Core Pacific redevelopment project that was allegedly obtained through bribery was worth US$500 million. Ko allegedly received/embezzled at total of NT$93 million.
But there appears to be quite a bit of evidence in the form of financial documentation. This can be difficult even for judges to understand and weigh properly. I took a quick look at the 190-page indictment and some of the evidence. I have no idea whether he is guilty or not beyond a reasonable doubt based on the evidence. It would take me weeks to sift through it and come to an informed conclusion. And I often don’t completely agree with the conclusions Taiwanese judges arrive at on evidence in much simpler cases.
I have never been close to satisfied that I really understand whether Chen Shui-bian was guilty or not of all or even some of the corruption he supposedly was involved in.
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The judges and the Special Investigation Division prosecutors on the CSB cases were doing constitutional back flips and forcing witness confessions just to put him behind bars.
What’s different with CSB’s and Ko’s corruption charges is that CSB was never personally involved in any of the dealings. The people that might have had under the table dealings were his wife and other government officials. That’s why the judge gave up proving “beyond a reasonable doubt based on the evidence” that CSB knew, or gave orders, or benefited from these “corruptions”, and invented the “ability of influence” excuse to sentence CSB.
So far, only DPP politicians have been put behind bars using the ability of influence non-sense, and KMT politicians, such as Lin Yishi (林益世) working in Ma’s administration, apparently had no ability to influence shit, despite they literally pulled out 18 million worth of cash out of his pond, and his mom confessed that she burnt 1 million USD worth of US dollar bills.
Ko is directly involved in all his cases, and obviously profiting his developer friends and his own family.
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Say what?
Lolol.