Ann Kao (高虹安) yesterday was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison and suspended as Hsinchu mayor after the Taipei District Court found her guilty of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) and the Criminal Code.
The court also deprived Kao of her civil rights for four years and she was suspended from office by the Ministry of the Interior.
Article 78 of the Local Government Act (地方制度法) stipulates that a mayor of a special municipality will be suspended from office if they are found guilty of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act.
Photo copied by Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
Kao was accused of taking for her own use more than NT$460,030 (US$14,012) of public funds allotted for overtime pay for her assistants during her time as a Taiwan People’s Party legislator from 2020 to 2022.
The other defendants in the trial were former staff at Kao’s office when she was a lawmaker: Wang Yu-wen (王郁文), head of public relations; Huang Hui-wen (黃惠玟), head of administrative affairs; Chen Huan-yu (陳奐宇), who headed the office; and Chen Yu-kai (陳昱愷), director of legal affairs.
Prosecutors said that the four, who were paid using public funds, inflated their monthly overtime at Kao’s instruction and gave the extra cash to her.
Payroll rules on the Legislative Yuan’s Web site say that each lawmaker is entitled to recruit eight to 14 assistants. Such personnel must be discharged if the legislator fails to win re-election.
From Feb. 1, 2020, Huang, Wang and Chen Huan-yu were each paid a monthly salary ranging from NT$46,000 to NT$70,000, the court said.
From March to November 2020, Kao instructed Huang to apply for monthly salaries of NT$70,000, NT$67,360, NT$67,161 and NT$72,000, exceeding her actual monthly pay of NT$62,000, based on false applications for overtime, the court said.
The same method was employed by Chen Huan-yu and Wang, who both made false applications for overtime on Kao’s instructions over the same period, it said.
Kao embezzled NT$116,514, it said.
Prosecutors had accused her of taking NT$460,030.
Chen Huan-yu, Huang and Wang were found to have embezzled NT$506, NT$5,642 and NT$466 respectively, the court said.
Wang and Huang were handed two-year prison sentences suspended for five years for contravening Article 5 of the Anti-Corruption Act, while Chen Huan-yu, was found guilty of breaching the same article and sentenced to one year, suspended for three years.
Chen Yu-kai was found not guilty of all charges.
Kao was paid NT$190,000 per month and had significant savings of NT$12 million, exacerbating the magnitude of her crime, the court said.
Moreover, the Yonglin Foundation (永齡基金會) was providing NT$100,000 per month to pay office assistants, the court said.
Hsinchu Deputy Mayor Chiu Chen-yuan (邱臣遠) is to take over Kao’s role until the central government appoints an acting mayor, the ministry said.
The Local Government Act stipulates that no by-election is to be held, as Kao’s term had less than two years to go.
Instead, the central government is to designate an acting mayor until the next election, it says.
Kao said in a video statement that the ruling was unprecedented compared with similar cases over the past decade.
She said that she would appeal the verdict.
Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsin
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