Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) said yesterday she was not a fraudster and that it was unnecessary for her to return the salary she received as Taipei City councilor and legislator.
“I am not a fraudster, nor was that salary acquired through fraud,” a tearful Lee said. “I hope the judiciary will prove my innocence.”
The Taipei District Court sentenced Lee on Thursday to two years in prison on charges of fraud related to holding US citizenship while serving as a Taipei city councilor from 1994 to 1998 and a KMT legislator from 1999 to 2008.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
The Nationality Act (國籍法) stipulates that holders of dual citizenship must surrender their foreign citizenship before assuming public office.
Lee apologized yesterday over the scandal, but protested that she had not committed fraud.
Lee said fraud usually included illegal income, yet “my past posts were all legitimate and had a legal basis and I received the salary in accordance with my posts, so how can you say that is illegal income?”
The legislature’s Organic Laws and Statutes Bureau said the judiciary could still declare that Lee must repay her earnings for the entire period of her public service.
If the court does not do so, the legislature may still file a civil suit to recoup the funds, it said.
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