Hsinchu County Councilor Chen Po-wei was detained yesterday on allegations that he forged documents and falsified accounting reports to pocket NT$3 million (NT$98,036) in public funds.
Officials at the Hsinchu District Prosecutors’ Office said they launched a probe after receiving reports of financial irregularities and questionable accounting by the three-term Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) councilor’s office.
The reports said there were problems with salary payments for an office assistant.
Chen is the deputy secretary-general of the council’s KMT caucus and has been a councilor since 2006.
The Hsinchu County Government pays each councilor NT$80,000 per month to cover the cost of two to four assistants.
Financial reports showed that Chen had registered two assistants for the past six years, each being paid NT$40,000 per month.
Prosecutors said that Chen allegedly gave instructions to forge documents and falsify accounting reports to register a man surnamed Hsieh (謝) as an assistant, even though Hsieh has been living for many years in China, where he works for a Chinese company.
Chen’s other office assistant is his younger brother.
Prosecutors said that surveillance of Chen’s office and other evidence indicated that Hsieh had never worked at the office and was rarely even seen there.
Prosecutors said they waited until this week, when Hsieh returned to Taiwan for the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, to conduct raids of Chen’s residence and office, and to bring Chen and Hsieh in for questioning.
They said they have evidence that the salary allegedly paid to Hsieh over the past six years had gone into the bank accounts of Chen and members of his family.
Prosecutors have applied to have Chen detained pending the outcome of the probe.
Hsieh was released yesterday on NT$400,000 bail and the court has barred him from leaving his home to prevent him from fleeing the country.
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