More than 70 employees of Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) yesterday confessed to illegally profiting from fake purchases of the company’s tickets.
To encourage employees to confess to their misdeeds, investigators arrived at the company’s offices as early as 7am to start taking statements yesterday.
Most of the employees who confessed to making illegal profits by scamming THSRC’s internal systems were service personnel at rail stations.
The compnay announced on Wednesday that it had punished some employees involved in the scam.
It said that a supervisor at a station agents had been fired, while 24 service agents were given demerits for purchasing discounted tickets in advance so they could receive coupons for free tickets or refunds after the company changed its schedules.
The company said the agents took advantage of their position to make extra money. The company’s regulations state that employees who receive two demerits lose their job.
Another 73 agents used a Father’s Day discount program in August to get half-price tickets, THSRC said.
Investigators said yesterday that most of the agents regretted what they had done, saying that they did not know their actions constituted serious crimes, such as fraud and breach of trust.
Aside from this case, THSRC is also under investigation in a larger case in which government officials and company management are suspected of irregular activities.
Prosecutors have been looking into the company’s cash flow since January on suspicions that it manipulated real estate prices, with the prices of property located near high-speed rail stations soaring even before construction had started.
They have also received reports accusing certain individuals of profiteering and of breach of trust during the planning and construction phases of the project.
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