TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – As former Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) faced questioning about the Core Pacific City development corruption case, prosecutors named him and a former deputy as defendants in a case of influence peddling Friday (Aug. 30).

Earlier in the day, prosecutors raided Ko’s home and office, as well as former Deputy Mayor Pong Cheng-sheng’s (彭振聲) home. The two politicians were listed as defendants, while Ko’s wife Chen Pei-chi (陳珮琪) and Pong’s wife were questioned as witnesses, per UDN.

Chen was the first to be transferred from the Ministry of Justice Agency Against Corruption to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office for further questioning Friday evening. Since Pong lived in Kaohsiung City, he only arrived in Taipei City for questioning during the afternoon, leading to speculation that the interrogations would last well into the night.

In the meantime, investigators rejected accusations that they had overstepped their authority. They said their searches had been limited to Ko’s home and his personal office, and that other offices at his Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) headquarters had not been searched.

After a meeting Friday, the TPP leadership said it believed in Ko’s innocence. The party set up an emergency response group to deal with the fallout from the allegations, but did not select an interim party leader. Ko said earlier he was stepping down as TPP chair for three months.

The basis of the case was a decision by Ko’s Taipei City administration between 2014 and 2022 to allow Core Pacific City to increase its floor area ratio, the proportion of the building’s floor area in relation to the total area of the land on which it was built.

The chair of Core Pacific Group and a member of the Taipei City Council were detained as suspects, as the former allegedly paid the latter to pressure city officials into allowing the change.