Police Arrest Taiwanese Developer Who Built Apartments Destroyed in Earthquake

The developer of the Taiwan apartment building that collapsed in Saturday’s earthquake has been arrested on suspicion of criminal business misconduct resulting in fatalities, UPI reported.

The 17-story building was in Tainan, the southwestern Taiwanese city that bore the brunt of the 6.4-magnitude quake that rattled Taiwan before dawn on Saturday morning. Forty-one people died in the earthquake — thirty-nine of whom were inside the Weiguan Jinlong apartment complex. Around 100 people remain unaccounted for, possibly still trapped within the building’s rubble.

The developer, Lin Minghui, went missing following the earthquake, but police located him and arrested him on Monday evening, the New York Times reported. Two of his associates were also detained.

Lin has a record of dubious business transactions, a Tainan official alleged to UPI, and in the wake of the earthquake, the apparently shoddy construction of the Weiguan Jinlong complex has received scrutiny. Witnesses described materials such as tin cans and plastic foam spilling from the building’s concrete columns as it crumbled.

[UPI]