Lo Fu-chu

Lo Fu-chu (; born 2 July 1943) is a former Taiwanese legislator and a self-described leader of the "Celestial Alliance" organized crime group. In the late 1990s and early 2000s he was known as the most notorious person involved with organized crime then holding public office, and was reputed to be one of the wealthiest men in Taiwan. While in office he was described by other legislators as "verbally and physically violent", and he was arrested the same day that his second legislative term ended, in 2002. After leaving office Lo fought and appealed many charges over the next decade, but was eventually convicted in 2012 for money laundering and insider trading and sentenced to four years in prison. Following his conviction Lo was released on bail and subsequently disappeared. Officials at the Taiwanese Criminal Investigation Bureau believe that he has probably fled to China, where he has investments in the hotel and entertainment industries.

Early career By the early 1980s, Lo was a mid-level figure in the Taiwanese underworld. Lo's brother was murdered by another figure in the Taiwanese mafia, but Lo was not senior enough to take revenge.

In 1984 Lo was detained for three years following Operation Clean Sweep, an effort by Taiwanese police to target organized criminal organizations and their members. Including Lo, 2,346 alleged "gangsters" were arrested in Operation Clean Sweep. Following his release, Lo joined, and became a leader of, a new criminal organization named the "Celestial Alliance", which was formed by a coalition of mob bosses who had been jailed together during Operation Clean Sweep.

Lo's leadership contributed to the growth of the Celestial Alliance, and it eventually became one of the three largest organized criminal organizations in Taiwan. The Celestial Alliance has become involved in a wide variety of legal and illegal operations, including construction, entertainment, the hotel industry, waste disposal, real estate, extortion, illegal logging, cyber crime, human trafficking, arms and drug smuggling, loansharking, illegal gambling, and prostitution. They later spread to mainland China, where they made investments in the hotel and entertainment industries in and around Beijing and Shanghai. Some members have been elected to lower-level political positions, where they are often perceived as working more effectively and efficiently than their rivals. and the other was elected to the municipal assembly of Xindian.

Following his return to Taiwan, Lo became a successful entrepreneur and businessman. His investment in the construction and real estate industries, and (allegedly) in illegal gambling operations led him to become one of the wealthiest men in Taiwan. In order to establish a good relationship with the people of his hometown, Xindian, he organized a local charitable organization for the elderly and made several large public donations to the community. In 1995, motivated partially because he believed it would assist him in avoiding criminal investigation, he ran for a seat in Taiwan's Legislative Assembly as an independent candidate, and won. (In Taiwan, sitting legislators are immune from arrest or imprisonment unless a majority of their fellow legislators vote otherwise).

Political career

Political activity Lo was elected in 1995, and was re-elected in 1998. Following his election to the legislature, Lo led a small bloc of 11 independent legislators, informally referred to as the "Non-Party Alliance". Because neither of Taiwan's two major political parties (the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)) had clear majorities, Lo's bloc often held the deciding swing votes. He quickly acquired a reputation as a mediator and arbitrator within the government. He generally sided with the KMT on important issues,

Other activities while in office During Lo's first term he gained a reputation for being "verbally and physically violent". He was often at the center of several brawls that occasionally occurred within the Taiwanese legislature, once allegedly swinging an aluminum bar at his political rivals during a dispute. For his assault the Taiwan High Court sentenced Lo to either spend 59 days in prison or pay a fine of NT$53,100 (slightly less than US$2,000) in 2001; but, because Taiwanese legislators cannot be arrested or imprisoned, Lo would not face any potential legal consequences until after his term in office ended, in 2002. Lo appealed the conviction, but the appeals judge increased the sentence to five months in prison or the option to pay a NT$135,000 fine (approximately $4,500 US). Because this was his final appeal, Lo decided to pay the fine.

Lo was sent to the legislature's discipline committee in 1999, but the case was dropped because over 2/3 of the committee members chose not to attend. Several other DPP legislators also claimed that Lo had assaulted them, but no evidence could be produced and the alleged assaults did not take place in public.

When interviewed about the many allegations against him in 2000, Lo dismissed them as politically motivated attempts to discredit him, claimed that his opponents lacked any evidence that he had any criminal involvement, and presented himself as an honest businessman who only sought public office at the request of religious leaders who had convinced him that he owed it to society. When asked about his violent actions within the Taiwanese legislature, Lo responded: "When I beat people up, it's because I'm trying to get legislation approved." during a meeting of the Education and Culture Committee, Lo originally denied that he had assaulted Lee, until a video of the incident (which Lo did not know existed) was shown on Taiwanese television.

Lo appealed the decision, and on 25 September 2003 the Taipei District Court reduced his conviction to four years. Lo again appealed, and on 27 April 2006 High Court judges again reduced his sentence to three years and nine months. Lo was granted another appeal, and on 12 August 2008 was cleared of all charges. The Hualien County Kuomintang approved Lo to run in the 2009 county magistracy election, but the decision was overturned by the KMT Organization and Development Committee. In 2012 Lo ran for a seat in the New Taipei City Government against Diane Lee's brother, Lee Ching-hua, but lost.