Ko Wen-je released on bail! Indictment cheat sheet: Do you have a USB cold wallet? The latest developments at a glance

Before reading this article, understand the latest developments in the Ko Wen-je case.

On December 26, 2024, the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office filed a public prosecution against Ko Wen-je, chairman of the Taiwan People's Party, and others in the Jinghua City case and political donation case. Ko Wen-je denied all the charges. At 2:30 a.m. on December 27, the Taipei District Court's Serious Financial Crime Division ruled that Ko Wen-je could be released on bail of 30 million NT$, with restrictions on leaving the country, going to sea, and residing. He returned home around noon on the same day after posting bail.

Ke Wen-je's key points of the Taipei City Prosecutors Office's indictment

Ko Wen-je was involved in the Jinghua City scandal, and the incident of suspected bribery and embezzlement of public welfare has become one of the biggest political topics in Taiwan in recent months. The Taipei District Prosecutors Office announced the indictment on December 16th:

Indictment Press Release

Full text of the indictment (190 pages)

This indictment has sparked controversy. The prosecutor's evidence, whether the USB cold wallet and Bitcoin mentioned by the celebrity and some media are real, and the specific sentencing are summarized below by 'Cryptocurrency City'.

First of all, let's start with the conclusion: Ko Wen-je's lawsuit did not mention cold wallets or Bitcoin.

The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office did not directly mention the terms "virtual currency", "cold wallet", "cryptocurrency", "Tether", etc. in the indictment and related press releases regarding Ko Wen-je.

However, some Taiwanese media and celebrities have discussed the association between Ko Wen-je and these terms, especially the rumors about his USB or flash drive possibly holding 1,500 bitcoins. These claims lack substantial evidence and have not been mentioned in official documents from prosecutors.

The folder structure of this USB drive is also clearly listed in the indictment, and someone on the community has organized the folder structure using the Pastebin tool (click me).

Image source: The indictment against Ko Wen-je from Pastebin did not mention words such as cold wallet, Bitcoin, virtual currency, etc. The structure of Ko Wen-je's USB data folder is as shown in the picture.

Related news: Is Ko Wen-je's USB a cold wallet? Commentator: Quickly search if there are any hidden coins.

Is Ko Wen-je 1500 Bitcoin? Famous host shouts 'PPT is also a virtual currency' again.

Ke Wenzhe Jinghua City case highlights

1. Jinghua City Land Illegal Floor Area Ratio Incentive Case

Ko Wen-je and others are suspected of illegally increasing the maximum 20% building volume incentive for Jinghua City Company using public power, benefiting Dingyue Company over 12.1 billion yuan, and involving crimes such as bribery, corruption, profiteering, and money laundering under the Anti-Corruption Act.

2. Political Donation Public Welfare Misappropriation Case

Ko Wen-je and others are suspected of embezzling political donations and packaging them as commercial activities, failing to deposit the donations into the political donation account as required.

3. Misappropriation of public trust fund embezzlement case

Ko Wen-je and others are suspected of misappropriating donations from the Public Hope Foundation for election and party personnel expenses, in violation of the foundation's social welfare purpose.

4. False Reporting Case of Political Donation Special Account

Ko Wen-je and others are suspected of providing false accounting vouchers and issuing false audit reports, recording false transactions, affecting the audit of the Control Yuan.

The main evidence listed by the prosecution

Good Read Graphic Text Version

Image Source: Crypto City Mapping Ko Wen-je's Jinghua City Case: Key evidence listed by the prosecution

Image source: Mapping by Crypto City. Ko Wen-je's Jinghua City case: main evidence listed by the prosecution

Image source: Crypto City Map, Case of Ko Wen-je's Jinghua City: Main evidence listed by the prosecution

Text Table Edition

The main evidence listed by the prosecutor's office in the Ke Wenzhe Jinghua City case includes documents related to the Jinghua City case, such as urban planning changes, records of meetings of the city committee/city review committee, official documents and rulings, records of grassroots civil servants and members of the committee questioning the legality, evidence of bribery and capital flow from Dingyue Company and Weijing Group's financial data, evidence of cash payment (monitoring records, account transfer records, EXCEL data), LINE, SMS, call records and related information, secretary's withdrawal voucher, evidence of transaction between the Foundation's account and the account of Mu Ke Company, evidence of political donation embezzlement, records of small fundraising items, concert income transferred to Mu Ke Company's account, false invoices (uniform invoices issued by Mu Ke Company to Cai Feng Company), relevant accounts returned by the Control Yuan after correction and the false audit report issued by Duanmu Zheng, evidence of breach of trust by the public's hope foundation, the articles of association and donation use regulations of the public's hope foundation, actual payment records of bidding personnel's salaries, comparison of employees' job duties with election and party activities, other information on communication, defendants discussing deleting data, connecting evidence and exit plans, etc. Assets confiscated by the court include Dingyue Company's Jinghua City land, real estate, Mu Ke Company's account, etc., in order to preserve criminal proceeds.

Details of the evidence presented by the prosecution in the Ke Wen-zhe case

"Administrative orders such as 'lunch box meeting' and official documents"

The prosecutor pointed out that Ko Wen-je repeatedly instructed subordinates to accelerate the 20% floor area ratio incentive for the Jinghua City project under the guise of 'City Hall Bento Meeting'. The relevant meeting records, official documents, and urban planning change processes all show suspicions of violating laws and regulations, but the project continued to be pushed forward.

210 million yuan bribery: 7 straw donors

The prosecutor's office has determined that after the 'Bento Meeting' on March 10, 109, Ko Wen-je made favorable rulings on the Jinghua City case. Subsequently, Shen Qingjing instructed 7 figureheads of the Wei Jing Group through Zhang Ocheng and Zhu Ohu to each transfer 300,000 yuan (a total of 2.1 million yuan) to the People's Party's political donation account. The actual source of the funds does not match the identity of the donor. After a financial investigation, the prosecutor's office concluded that this amount was a bribe.

15 million yuan cash bribery: EXCEL record

The prosecutor found an EXCEL file stored in Ko Wen-je's mobile hard drive, marked with key words such as "2022/11/1", "Xiao Shen", "1500", and "manager Shen Qingjing", and believed that the record was used to mark the receipt of 15 million yuan in cash bribes from Shen Qingjing, which coincided with the groundbreaking ceremony.

Image source: The prosecutor found an EXCEL file stored in Ko Wen-je's external hard drive in the indictment against Ko Wen-je.

"Shredding note paper" and collusion

During the search at Ko Wen-je's office, the prosecutor found shredded pieces of paper with the words 'instructing accomplices to leave the country' and 'internal account inspection by Mu Ke.' Based on this, the prosecutor suspects that Ko Wen-je attempted to fabricate evidence and destroy evidence.

Political Donation Embezzlement: MuKe Company's Cash Flow

The prosecutor found that multiple donations should have been political contributions, but instead of being processed through the political contribution account, they flowed into private use through the accounts of Muke Company or through methods such as "portrait rights authorization fees" and "surplus from fundraising concerts". In addition, concert proceeds, income from fundraising merchandise, etc., were transferred to Muke Company through third-party payments without actually entering the party affairs account.

Horizon Foundation breaches trust: employee salary payments

The prosecutors accused Ko Wen-je and Lee O-zong of embezzling a total of 8.27 million NT dollars from the foundation, which was actually used for election campaigns and party personnel salaries, clearly contradicting the foundation's purpose of "social welfare".

Testimony of co-conspirators and witnesses, communication records

During the process of interrogation, search and seizure of electronic messages, relevant LINE messages, SMS messages, call records were found, which confirmed that Ko Wen-je had instructed or tacitly approved others to assist in handling bribery, political donations, and foundation funds, and that some confessions of accomplices and witness statements were also unfavorable to Ko Wen-je.

Key figures in the Ko Wen-je case, offenses and requested sentences

Good Read Graphic Text Version

Image source: Cryptocity Mapping Ko Wen-je's Jinghua City case: The main evidence listed by the prosecutor

Image source: Cryptocity mapping - Ko Wen-je's Jinghua City case: the main evidence listed by the prosecutor

Image source: Cryptocity Map Ko Wen-je Jinghua City Case: Main evidence listed by the prosecutor

Image Source: Evidence listed by the prosecutor in the case of Ko Wen-je's Jinghua City

Text Table Edition

The key figure suggested sentence/fine for the crime committed by Ko Wen-je for accepting bribes, misappropriation of public welfare, misappropriation of political donations, and breach of trust is 28 years and 6 months of imprisonment. Deprivation of civil rights for 10 years Fine of NT$50 million, Li Wenzong is guilty of accepting bribes, embezzling public funds, and breach of trust.

17 years and 4 months of imprisonment

Disqualification from public office for 5 years Fine 1,000 million

Shen Qingjing's picture of benefiting from crime and bribery

17 years of imprisonment

Fines of 33 million

Deprivation of civil rights for 11 years

Ying Xiaowei charged with bribery and money laundering

Sixteen years and six months of imprisonment

Fined 50 million

Peng Zhensheng was in charge of supervision affairs to make a profit, and after requesting a commutation of his sentence, he was sentenced to 3 years in prison + deprivation of public power for 3 years, and Huang Jingmao was in charge of supervising affairs for profit

7 years of imprisonment

Fine 10,000,000 yuan

Deprivation of civil rights for 5 years

Shao Xupei is in charge of supervising affairs for profit

Suggest reducing to a prison sentence of 1 year and 3 months

Probation declared for 2 years

Wu Shunmin accepted bribes in violation of his position is not clearly sentenced, Zhang Zhicheng's bribery in violation of his position is not listed, the sentence is not clear, Duanmuzheng is exercising business, publishing false documents on his business, 1 year in prison, Zhu Ohu violated his position and paid bribes

2-year suspended prosecution

Payment Public Fund 3.3 million yuan

Chen O-yuan violates duty by bribery

Deferred prosecution for 2 years

Pay public treasury 1.2 million yuan

Non-prosecution: Chen O-kun, Wang O-kan, Chen O-min, Li O-juan (not prosecuted for some charges), Ho O-ting, Chen O-xuan, and others with insufficient suspicion of some crimes.

Note: The source of other properties is unknown, and the case of discount code sharing is still under investigation. The defendant Xu O-yu, who is wanted, has not yet appeared in court, and relevant units have been requested to assist in repatriation. If individuals involved in illegal activities are found during the investigation process, the investigation will continue.

After Ke Wenzhe's indictment was made public, the views of all parties were sorted out

The official team of Ko Wen-je raised questions about the indictment, stating that the 2.1 million is a legal political donation and is two years apart from the timing of the Jinghua City volume reward case.

Regarding the 15 million bribery charges, Ko Wen-je's team pointed out that the prosecutor's office relied solely on the cash withdrawn by Shen Qingjing at a certain time to infer, but failed to provide specific time and place of receipt. In addition, the prosecutor's office illegally abused its power to interrogate without issuing a summons and took Ko Wen-je away without any mental preparation early in the morning.

People's Party legislator Huang Kuo-chang questioned the various versions of media reports in the past few months about Ko Wen-je accepting bribery, ranging from 300 to 400 million to cold wallets, bitcoins, etc. However, these allegations were not mentioned at all in the indictment, which reflects the 'unhealthy tripartite relationship between the party, the judiciary, and the media.'

DPP legislator Wang Shijian responded to the mention of the '朕.doc' file on Ko Wen-je's USB drive in the indictment, stating that when he gave Ko Wen-je the dragon robe, he wanted him to undergo psychological therapy. Now that Ko Wen-je has been indicted, he feels very sad.

Shen Qingjing, the defense lawyer for the chairman of the Wei Jing Group, has submitted an application for prosecutor evaluation to the Ministry of Justice, questioning the handling prosecutor's use of inappropriate political remarks during the investigation process.

The responses from people with different standpoints reflect the controversy and complexity of the case. However, all allegations and defenses need to be rigorously examined and debated in court, and ultimately a fair judgment will be made by the court based on the evidence.

The Ko Wen-je case has attracted a lot of attention, but it should be remembered that the presumption of innocence applies.

The above presentation summarizes the main arguments and evidence in the prosecutor's indictment, but it is important to emphasize that these are all allegations by the prosecutor. Before the court's trial and final judgment, all defendants should enjoy the presumption of innocence principle.

In addition, this article is compiled based on news reports and public information. Readers should maintain an objective and neutral attitude when referring to it, and avoid taking a preset position.

"Cryptotropolis" reminds us that everyone should be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a public trial in accordance with the law.

Ko Wen-je is on bail! A summary of the indictment: Is there a USB cold wallet? The latest developments in one go. This article was first published in 'Crypto City'.