Prosecutors yesterday said they had closed their investigation into Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) use of his special allowance fund, saying that three of Wang’s aides might face charges of forgery.
The Special Investigation Panel under the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said that Wang spent NT$19 million (US$600,000) on public expenses between February 1999 and December 2007, and claimed a total of NT$14 million in reimbursements. Since the amount spent was more the amount claimed in reimbursements, prosecutors said Wang did not pocket any of the special allowance fund and would not be charged.
Prosecutors discovered, however, that three of Wang’s aides may have used fraudulent receipts to claim reimbursements for Wang.
Prosecutors said the three submitted fraudulent receipts to be used in the accounting for Wang’s special allowance fund, but regulations state that such accounting matters are not required to be approved by Wang.
The Supreme Prosecutors Office in September 2007 indicted then-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), then-DPP chairman Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃) and then-National Security Council secretary-general Mark Chen (陳唐山) on suspicion of misusing their special allowance funds.
Those case are pending with the Taipei District Court.
DPP officials filed lawsuits asking prosecutors also to probe Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) officials and their use of special allowance funds, including former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), Wang and others.
The DPP has accused prosecutors of delaying investigations into KMT officials.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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