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Economic Observer Network Wang Yiwei/Text Ko Wen-je is in trouble!

Not one trouble, but two.

One is the campaign fund fraud case. The case has already been exposed, and the suspects were interrogated and obtained. In this case, someone will definitely be sued.

One is related to the developer. When Ke Wenzhe was the mayor of Taipei, he increased the plot ratio of a construction project in the city, Jinghua City, from 392% to 840%, allowing the developer to build more than double the area of ​​houses. This case is under investigation, and the people involved have been interviewed. Maybe it will be exposed one day in the future.

Taiwan held a regional leadership election on January 13 this year. According to the established process, candidates need to report the fundraising and use of funds during the campaign to Taiwan's "Control Yuan".

Although Ko Wen-je's People's Party hired professional accountants, the accountants did not do a good job on this assignment.

On April 8, Taiwan's Control Yuan found that the information submitted by the People's Party was incomplete and asked it to resubmit it. On July 3, the People's Party supplemented and improved the information and submitted it again.

There are still problems with this information.

The most prominent problem was misattribution. With tens of millions of New Taiwan dollars unknown where they had been spent, the accountant, in a hurry, put three sums of money in the names of two companies, Shile and Nio, with a total amount of 9.16 million New Taiwan dollars.

This is a mistake so low that it can be described as "stupid". Did the two companies receive the funds? Are there any proof of fund transactions? Did they issue invoices? Where did the money go? These questions cannot withstand scrutiny and will be exposed if checked casually.

Before anyone came to investigate, the two companies publicly clarified that they had not received the relevant funds.

The Taipei District Prosecutors Office heard the news and took action. On August 14, the office directed relevant investigation agencies to search accounting firms and companies related to the People's Party in seven directions, bringing back a total of six people for interrogation. Two of them were found to be suspected of forgery of documents, and were released on bail pending trial and restricted from leaving the country.

For a while, public opinion was in an uproar, and related news was also exposed by the media. For example, a company called Mu Ke has close ties with the People's Party. The two characters Mu Ke are suspected to be the split of the character "Ke" in Ke Wenzhe's name. Another example is that Ke Wenzhe's wife is very high-profile. Not only did she open a company in the name of her son, she also planned to buy a house in Taipei after the election. The mansion she had her eyes on was worth NT$120 million.

It is hard to say whether Ko Wen-je can get away with this case unscathed, but the case has already caused damage to Ko Wen-je and the People's Party.

The majority of the People's Party's supporters are young people, and are referred to as "Little Grass" by the Taiwanese media. Today (August 22) the Blue Camp's United Daily News published an editorial titled "After the fake accounts and Mu Ke incident, are the Little Grass still there?"

The editorial pointed out that Ke Wenzhe and his wife "love their children so much that it cannot be stopped; but how do the young people feel when they see this? If the NT$120 million for the mansion included many enthusiastic donations from the young people, would they still have no regrets today as they did in the beginning?"

On the green camp side, the Liberty Times has repeatedly criticized Ke Wenzhe in editorials. Today (August 22), the title of the newspaper's editorial is "You can't wash yourself clean even if you jump into the Baihe River."

The editorial stated: "In the past, some people could not wash away their guilt even if they jumped into the Yellow River. Now, the white power has become so self-deprecating that they may not be able to wash away their guilt even if they jump into the White River."

The editorial also predicted: "This white crisis started with the election donation declaration that should not have been wrong. The more low-level mistakes are dug, the more they are found. It is reasonable to suspect that the white high-level management may be more daring in operating the money flow than outsiders know. After the appetizer, the main course is about to be served. The next deep crisis will include the big secret treasures such as North Shike, Tai Chi Kuang, and Jinghua City during Mayor Ko's tenure. Among them, the reconstruction plot ratio of Jinghua City has gone through 392% under Hao Longbin, then corrected to 560% by the Supervisory Committee, and soared to 840% under Ko Wen-je. Are there any conflicts of interest or political and business disputes behind the changes in the numbers? The dark side of Jinghua, the audience will wait for the water to drip from the cracks in the cave."

As this green media said, perhaps the declaration of campaign funds is just an appetizer, and the developer projects during Ko Wen-je's tenure as mayor of Taipei are the main course.

Among them, the Jinghua City project, which has been seized upon by the Democratic Progressive Party and the media, is indeed a bit strange. You know, Taipei's tallest building, 101 floors, is 508 meters high, and its plot ratio is 752.62%. Jinghua City has 19 floors above ground and 7 floors underground, a total of 26 floors, and its plot ratio is actually higher than that of the 101 building.

In order to find out whether there are any problems with the Jinghua City project, Taiwan's administrative and judicial departments have interviewed and interrogated more than 10 relevant personnel, and former Taipei Deputy Mayor Peng Zhensheng has been restricted from leaving the country. On August 21, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office again directed relevant departments to summon three professionals as witnesses to understand the review process of the Jinghua City project.

This is really one problem after another.

Can Ko Wen-je survive these two disasters?