Former Presidential Office press relations director Tsai Chung-li (蔡仲禮) was sentenced to 10 months in prison and put on probation for three years yesterday after the Taipei District Court found him guilty of forgery.
The prison sentence can be commuted to a fine.
The court ruled that Tsai could appeal to the Taiwan High Court.
The ruling said Tsai bought a house in the US state of Maryland in October 2005 while serving as director-general of the Information Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in Washington.
TECRO staffers without a house are entitled to housing subsidies of US$2,464 per month. The figure is reduced to US$869 for those with a home.
Tsai continued to collect the full subsidy after buying the house.
Admitting his guilt during the district court’s hearing, Tsai said: “I feel ashamed for what I have done.”
He resigned from his post at the Presidential Office last October after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators revealed details of the scandal to the public.
Tsai was director-general of the TECRO’s Information Division in the US until President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) invited him to serve as Presidential Office press relations director in July 2008.
In other news, Taipei prosecutors yesterday said they were investigating a case in which National Property Bureau (NPB) officials are alleged to have sold a plot of prime public land to construction companies at a price well below its market value and then pocketed some of the proceeds.
Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Wang Wen-te (王文德) said prosecutors suspected the land, more than 200m² that originally housed dormitories belonging to state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp on Bade Road, Taipei City, was sold to construction companies for around NT$100 million (US$3 million), far less than its estimated NT$500 million value.
He alleged that bureau officials may have helped the construction firms make illegal profits of about NT$400 million.
Prosecutors yesterday led agents from the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau to search the offices of three construction firms — Duen Nien Construction Corp (敦年建設公司), Jeou Nien Construction Corp (久年營造公司) and Yuan tai Corp (遠泰建設公司) — and seize documents.
Prosecutors were still interviewing staffers from the three companies as of press time.
Taipei prosecutors indicted former NPB Deputy Director Chen Kuan-pao (陳官保) and his predecessor, Su Wei-cheng (蘇維成), on graft and forgery charges involving the sale of a plot of public land near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in 2007. The case is pending in the Taipei District Court.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book
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