The Taipei City Government has revoked the Eastern Multimedia Groups exclusive rights to run the Taipei Arena, one day after prosecutors indicted Group Chairman Gary Wang （王令麟） and 31 associates on charges that included rigging the tender for the rights to operate the indoor facility.

"Starting today, the city government will terminate the contract with the group. We will form a special task force to take over the arenas operations and will open a new tender for 〔the rights to run〕 the facility," Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin （郝龍斌） said on Tuesday morning.

The city also pushed Eastern Multimedia to pay the NT$20 million in rights fees it owes the city for the previous quarter, threatening legal action if the company did not comply.

Eastern Multimedia won the rights to operate the Taipei Arena for nine years in a May 2005 tender.

Hau said that since the group was allegedly involved in irregularities to win the bid, the city government needed to take action. He indicated he would do his best to hold the seven events scheduled for the arena through December to protect the interests of consumers and those who had booked the arena.

In its indictment of Wang and his associates, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office alleged that Eastern Multimedia won the tender to operate Taipei Arena by paying NT$24.78 million to the only other company that joined in the bidding to let Eastern win.

The prosecutors recommended that the head of the other company, Hsieh Yin-lung, be sentenced to two years in jail.

Former Taipei City Sports Department director Liu Jia-tseng was also indicted on suspicion of helping Eastern Multimedia win the contract and for not reporting or imposing fines on the company after it failed to install a digital display in the facility by the deadline.

Liu allegedly blocked a subordinate from filing a report to the city government about the missing digital display project, prosecutors said.

They believe Liu helped Eastern Multimedia make NT$207.12 million in illegal gains by allowing it not to build the display and asked the court to sentence him to five years in jail.

Eastern Arena Corporation, the Eastern Multimedia subsidiary operating the Taipei Arena, slammed the citys decision. The company insisted it had not violated any clause of the contract and could not understand why the city government had the right to take over the facilitys operations.

"The city government should have waited until a court ruled on the indictments. The city governments unscrupulous decision to terminate the contract and take over the Taipei Arena has caused Eastern Arena considerable trouble," said Eastern Arena Corporation President Lin Ke-mo.

Lin refused, however, to comment on the delay in installing the digital display, saying only that the matter was still under mediation.

The seven performances slated to be held in the Taipei Arena include a fashion show on August 17, a collective wedding ceremony on October 10, and two live concerts by pop singers David Tao and Alan Lou in October and November respectively.