The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday announced that it has put 225 suspects — doctors and Academia Sinica researchers — who confessed to tax evasion on parole, while it would proceed with charges against 27 others.
Prosecutors first found that the 89-year-old Academia Sinica research fellow and former National Defense Medical Center director Tsai Tso-yung (蔡作雍) and deceased suspect Lee Hung (李鴻) had helped more than 250 doctors shelter up to NT$78.4 million (US$2.36 million at current exchange rates) in what was branded the biggest tax evasion case in the nation’s history five years ago.
Investigation results showed that the suspects forged monetary donations totaling NT$260 million to the Springsoft Education Foundation, founded by Tsai, and the Cheng Han Education Foundation, founded by Lee, in response to requests for research funds.
Photo: Taipei Times
The suspects made the donations while requesting for research funds equivalent to the amount they pretended to have donated, results showed.
The foundations charged the applicants a handling fee of 5 percent of the amounts they requested, while issuing the money in full, thereby helping the doctors and academics trim the income tax they were required to pay.
Tsai was the founder and former chairman of the Springsoft Education Foundation, and Earl Fu (傅鍔) served as the foundation’s executive director, while Lin Hsin-iung (林欣榮) served on Cheng Han’s board of directors and Hsu Wei-cheng (徐偉成) was the executive director.
The National Taxation Bureau of Taipei first noticed tax filing irregularities in the auditing process five years ago and contacted the doctors involved. Most of them admitted to the wrongdoing and paid up what they owed.
The bureau later decided to refer the four main suspects to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
The four main suspects — Tsai, Chinese Medical University professor and neuromedicine luminary Lin, National Defense University dentistry professor Fu and Hsu — all confessed to tax evasion and were granted probation on condition that they make donations ranging from NT$210,000 to NT$570,000 to the national treasury.
However, Tri-Service General Hospital doctor Wu Chia-chun (吳嘉駿) and 26 other doctors denied the charges and have been charged with violating the Tax Collection Act (稅捐稽徵法).
Prosecutors said they dropped the charges against one suspect due to insufficient evidence.
The prosecutors’ office said that, with the exception of National Taiwan University Hospital, doctors at all the nation’s major hospitals were involved in the case.
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