Taipei prosecutors this week will begin interviewing Presidential Office officials over the alleged embezzlement.
"The officials will be interviewed as witnesses starting this week," Eric Chen (
The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a prosecutorial source said that investigators and the Ministry of Audit had discovered that around NT$15 million (US$458,100) in reimbursements for Pacific Sogo Department Store vouchers had been requested.
The report said the NT$15 million in vouchers were submitted for reimbursement from 2003 to last year.
The paper said that since first lady Wu Shu-jen (
Chen declined to comment on the news report.
Ministry of Audit Spokesman Wang Yung-hsing (王永興) yesterday told the press that the ministry had handed over documents related to the Presidential Office's reimbursement of expenditures from a "special allowance" fund to prosecutors, and the ministry would no longer comment on the matter.
The Ministry of Audit last week called for an investigation into allegations of embezzlement at the Presidential Office, saying it had received insufficient information to verify the legality of NT$48 million in expenditures from a secret Presidential Office slush fund.
Wang had said that documents related to the Presidential Office's reimbursement of expenditures from a "special allowance" fund last year contained irregularities.
The ministry had said that about 76.76 percent of the expenditures covered by the fund -- NT$48 million in total -- had not been reimbursed in conformity with the regulations.
According to the ministry's investigation, NT$47.9 million out of NT$48 million was spent last year, among which receipts for NT$24 million were classified and receipts for another NT$12.8 million were deemed unqualified for reimbursement.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (
Those receipts were issued by the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taipei, the Ambassador Hotel and Sogo Department Store, among others, Chiu alleged.
"We did find that some copies of the receipts Legislator Chiu provided to us had been used to reimburse expenditures from the fund, but we can't make public the amount, value or people who requested reimbursement," Wang said yesterday.
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
Taiwan’s armed forces have established response protocols for a wide range of sudden contingencies, including the “Wan Chun Plan” to protect the head of state, the Ministry of Defense (MND) said today. After US President Donald Trump on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, concerns have been raised as to whether China would launch a similar “decapitation strike” on Taiwan. The armed forces regularly coordinate with relevant agencies and practice drills to ensure preparedness for a wide range of scenarios, Vice Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) told reporters before a
EVA Airways on Saturday said that it had suspended a pilot and opened an investigation after he allegedly lost his temper and punched the first officer several times as their plane was taxiing before takeoff at Los Angeles International Airport. According to a report published on Thursday by The Reporter, the incident occurred after the flight’s Malaysian first officer tried to warn the Taiwanese pilot, surnamed Wen (文), that he was taxiing faster than the speed limit of 30 knots (55.6kph). After alerting the pilot several times without response, the first officer manually applied the brakes in accordance with standard operating
Japanese Councilor Hei Seki (石平) on Wednesday said that he plans to visit Taiwan, saying that would “prove that Taiwan is an independent country and does not belong to China.” Seki, a member of the Japan Innovation Party, was born in Chengdu in China’s Sichuan Province and became a naturalized Japanese in 2007. He was elected to the House of Concilors last year. His views on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — espoused in a series of books on politics and history — prompted Beijing to sanction him, including barring Seki from traveling to China. Seki wrote on X that he intends
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