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BackThe High Court of the second instance of the Ke Wenzhe Jinghua City case held its first hearing. Zhang Yumeng: Li Wenzong’s consideration of admitting breach of trust may be the key
The High Court of the second instance of the Ke Wenzhe Jinghua City case held its first hearing. Zhang Yumeng: Li Wenzong’s consideration of admitting breach of trust may be the key
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自由时报30 minutes agoPolitics4 min readChinaView original

The High Court of the second instance of the Ke Wenzhe Jinghua City case held its first hearing. Zhang Yumeng: Li Wenzong’s consideration of admitting breach of trust may be the key

The second trial of former Taipei Mayor Ke Wenzhe's Beijing City-related and political donation case was held for the first time. Zhang Yumeng, chairman of the Taiwan Youth Generation Community Good Association, pointed out that Li Wenzhong was considering pleading guilty to breach of trust and might send Ke Wenzhe to prison.

Quick Look

  • The High Court of Second Instance of former Taipei Mayor Ko Wenzhe's case involving Beijing City and political donations was held for the first time.
  • Zhang Yumeng, chairman of the Taiwan Youth Generation Community Good Association, pointed out that Duan Muzheng pleaded guilty and Li Wenzong was considering pleading guilty to breach of trust.
  • Since the breach of trust crime is tied to Ke Wenzhe and the second trial has confirmed his conviction, it may be the key to sending Ke Wenzhe to prison.

AI-generated summary

Why It Matters

Former Taipei Mayor Ko Wenzhe filed an appeal after being sentenced to 17 years in prison in the first trial for his involvement in the Capital City and political donation cases. The High Court held its first hearing today.

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Former Taipei Mayor Ko Wenzhe was involved in Beijing City and political donation cases. He appealed after being sentenced for 17 years in the first instance. The High Court of the second instance held its first hearing today. In this regard, Zhang Yumeng, chairman of the Taiwan Youth Generation Community Association, pointed out that Li Wenzhong (former chairman of Zhongwang Foundation) was considering pleading guilty to breach of trust. Since the crime of breach of trust, Ke Wenzhe and Li Wenzhong are tied together, as long as the second trial confirms his death, Ke Wenzhe will be arrested and imprisoned. He asked directly, "Has Ke Wenzhe ever thought that this old classmate might end up sending you to prison with his own hands?"

Zhang Yumeng posted on Facebook that Ke Wenzhe is really finished. Since Duanmu is pleading guilty, Li Wenzong is also "considering pleading guilty to breach of trust." The key point is that Ke Wenzhe and Li Wenzong are tied together for breach of trust. As long as the second trial confirms his innocence, Abei will be arrested and imprisoned.

Zhang Yumeng pointed out that the case Duanmu Zheng was involved in was a "false accounting storm." Prosecutors discovered that Ke Wenzhe's political donation account actually did not pay Shile Company, Neo Company, Muke Company and Jiasheng Company. Duanmuzheng did not obtain invoices or receipts from these companies, but directly used "advertising expenses", "publicity activity expenses", "authorization fees" and "production of campaign items" to post the figures on the accounts on his own. When the figures on the accounts were compared, the total of eight false expenditures exceeded 20.63 million.

Zhang Yumeng further pointed out that Duanmu Zheng refused to plead guilty from the investigation to the first trial. At that time, Duanmu Zheng said in court that after he took over the case of Ke Wenzhe's election as president, he also found another friend named Chen and paid him 20,000 yuan a month to publish information on political donations. Little did he know at the time that there would be 180,000 political donation declarations to be processed later. The number of declarations was so large that a friend surnamed Chen had to work overtime during the Lunar New Year. Moreover, the contents of the declaration were all provided by Li Wenjuan. He did not know it and hoped that the judge would give him justice. He said that in March, Duanmuzheng was sentenced to one year in prison for forging documents, but now there is a shocking turn of events. Duanmuzheng confessed to the crime and asked the court for a lighter sentence.

Zhang Yumeng said that Li Wenzong's attitude was also relaxed, and this may directly lead to Abei being arrested and imprisoned. He explained that Li Wenzong has two major key cases. The first is that the North Court found that he and Ke Wenzhe "misappropriated" more than 61.34 million yuan in political donations, including those in KP After the SHOW fundraising concert, the surplus of more than 770,000 yuan was remitted to Muke Company, as well as the small donation items from the online store "Mukehaodian". The more than 41.33 million received also went to Muke Company. The above "public welfare embezzlement" part caused Li Wenzong to be sentenced to 3 years and 2 months in the first trial. To this day, he still maintains his innocence in the second trial.

Zhang Yumeng revealed that the "crime of breach of trust" in the second case was the focus. The court of first instance found that Ke Wenzhe and Li Wenzong together embezzled more than 8.27 million from the Zhongwang Foundation and paid it as salary to 13 people who worked on Ke Wenzhe's campaign. This constituted a joint breach of trust. Originally, Li Wenzong also refused to plead guilty in the first trial. However, today Li Wenzong's attitude has "relaxed" significantly, and he does not rule out a guilty plea.

Zhang Yumeng said that Li Wenzong advocated that Zhongwang Foundation did pay salaries to employees of the People's Party, but the foundation itself also had the need to hire manpower, and employees of the People's Party also did the work of the foundation, so this should not be directly regarded as "breach of trust." He believes that although Li Wenzong still denies committing the crime, his appointed lawyer added that if the crime facts and amount range are clearly defined, he may "consider pleading guilty depending on the circumstances."

Zhang Yumeng pointed out that this was a major turning point because the criminal facts of "breach of trust" in the first trial tied Ke Wenzhe and Li Wenzong together. To put it bluntly, the Beijing Institute of Technology believed that the two people jointly used more than 8.27 million from the Public Hope Foundation to pay salaries to Ke Wenzhe's campaign team.

Zhang Yumeng said that the most important thing is that the crime of breach of trust is "defeated in the second instance." In principle, it cannot be appealed to the third instance. Ke Wenzhe will definitely fight to be acquitted of breach of trust in the second instance, or he can fight for a fine of Yike within 6 months. But now that Li Wenzong has come out and is considering pleading guilty to breach of trust, Abei must be going crazy. He criticized Ke Wenzhe, who initially blamed Li Wenzong and Duanmuzheng, and also said that he "mistakenly trusted a classmate of 50 years". Have you ever thought that this old classmate might personally send you to prison in the end?

What to Watch

AI outlook — possibilities, not facts

  • The High Court of Second Instance will continue to hear and make judgments on cases of breach of trust and embezzlement.

    Very likely · Within months

Open Questions

  • Will Li Wenzong finally formally plead guilty in the second trial?
  • What was the verdict of the second instance court on the crime of breach of trust?

Related Topics

This article was originally published by 自由时报.

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