The Taiwanese diplomat who pleaded guilty to a charge of violating a US federal labor law in Kansas City, Missouri, on Friday may have to wait months before she can be released after the judge presiding over the case delayed ruling on a plea bargain agreement.
The ruling was a setback for Jacqueline Liu (劉姍姍), director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Kansas City, who has been detained since Nov. 10, when she was arrested on charges of underpaying and overworking her Filipino housekeeper.
US prosecutors accused Liu of fraudulently hiring two Philippine housekeepers for her residence. One was employed in 2009 and last year, and the other from March 6 to August this year. By pleading guilty, Liu admitted she fraudulently entered into employment contracts with two housekeepers and that she did not intend to comply with the stated terms, US prosecutors said in a press release.
Photo: CNA
After Liu waived her right to a grand jury trial at a detention hearing on Wednesday, she signed a plea agreement with prosecutors, but US District Judge David Gregory Kays did not accept the plea agreement at Friday’s hearing.
Kays said he would consider the plea agreement and a pre-sentencing investigation report, which could take about three months to complete. Liu is to remain in custody while the judge considers the plea agreement.
The Kansas City Star reported Kays asking in the hearing: “Did you do this in your official capacity or as a private individual?” and “Did you use your title when you signed your name [to the contract]?” — to which Liu replied: “No.”
Liu’s answer seemingly contradicted a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when it first responded to Liu’s arrest that the employment of the housekeeper was related to Liu’s official duties and that the housekeeper did not come under the purview of Liu’s personal life.
The two housekeepers were both paid by the ministry.
When about Liu’s contention that the housekeeper was not hired under her official position, the ministry’s spokesman James Chang (章計平) said in Taipei that “he respected” what Liu had said.
At the conclusion of Friday’s hearing, Liu paid a total of US$80,044 in full restitution to the two victims, which accounts for the hours they worked based on a schedule of 16 to 18 hours of work per day over six-and-a-half days a week.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Taipei and Liu would jointly recommend a sentence of time served, which would trigger Liu’s immediate deportation from the US upon sentencing.
Liu remains in federal custody until her sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.
The two housekeepers have been proven to be victims of a severe form of human trafficking under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, US prosecutors said.
“As a result, they will receive government support for a T visa, which would allow, among other benefits, them to legally remain and work in the US,” they said.
After the “waiver and plea hearing,” Liu’s lawyer Jim Wirken said his client seemed uneasy about the hearing’s outcome.
Wirken had hoped Kays would agree at the hearing to a 24-point plea bargain deal negotiated by him and US Assistant Attorney Cynthia Cordes, who recommended a sentence of time served and deportation.
According to the Kansas City Star, Liu appeared in court on Friday in a prison-issued jumpsuit with her hands and feet shackled, unlike the hearing on Wednesday, in which she appeared unshackled and dressed in street clothes.
Wirken said he had requested that Liu be permitted to wear street clothes, but that Kays had decided that she be treated no differently from any other defendant in pre-trial detention, according to the paper.
Chang said the ministry felt “deeply grieved” that Liu had to wear a prison jumpsuit and be shackled.
“Liu is our director-general of a Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the US. She should be accorded due respect,” he said.
Liu’s case has been characterized by the ministry as a personal incident rather than one in which the US government failed to treat a Taiwanese diplomat with due respect and to follow due process during its investigation into the allegations against Liu.
The shift coincidently came after Wirken’s first meeting with Liu on Wednesday and followed discussions with ministry officials to devise strategies to settle the case.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS