Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-04
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Three officials at Taipei City’s Construction Management Office were charged Friday over the illegal construction of the Guizikeng Country Club in the capital’s Yangmingshan area.

After Mayor Ko Wen-je took office last December, he launched a widespread campaign against illegal buildings across the capital. One of the items which drew his attention was the hot springs club in the Beitou District which had reportedly been torn down 12 times only to arise again larger each time.

The Shilin Prosecutors Office concluded that the club owner, Chen Chung-ming, had been involved in forgery to obtain a hot springs license and had received the cooperation of the three officials, named as Lu Kuo-tung, Lin Wei-ming and Hung Kao-huang.

After receiving the license in 2005, Chen had the older structure demolished but replaced by a newer and larger building which occupied more than 250 square meters of public land, prosecutors said. He never applied for a construction license but went on to build a coffee shop, a bath house and a restaurant. During the period from 2005 to 2009, Chen was accused 13 times of illegal construction by members of the public, but he was never stopped, prosecutors said.     [FULL  STORY]