TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Prosecutors on Friday applied for the detention of Farglory Group (遠雄) founder Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄) and of a Kuomintang member of the New Taipei City Council on suspicion of involvement in bribery.

Over the past few years, Chao has been involved in several high-profile legal cases, as well as in a dispute with the Taipei City Government over Farglory’s work on the Taipei Dome.

The latest allegations follow raids on 50 locations and the questioning of 66 suspects and witnesses, including Chao and a son, and city councilor Chou Sheng-kao (周勝考).

The probe focuses on company executives allegedly bribing politicians and New Taipei City officials to facilitate construction projects by Farglory in the Tucheng and Xinzhuang districts.

At least one of the projects involved the avoidance of an environmental impact assessment report for a hilly plot of land believed to be vulnerable to landslides, reports said.

Another part of the new investigation reportedly focused on Chao pocketing fees for illegal financial transactions related to Farglory insurance and real-estate affiliates.

Breach of trust, embezzlement, fraud, forgery, and violations of the Securities and Exchange Act and of the Business Entity Accounting Act were all potentially involved in the case, prosecutors said.

Chao received a sentence of two years in prison suspended for five years and paid NT$200 million (US$6.5 million) to the treasury for previous scandals.

The latest case was reportedly unearthed because of 69 boxes full of documents left over by a former official implicated in the previous scandals, media reports said.