The media brouhaha over TVBS anchorwoman Kelly Hsueh's (
On Thursday, Japan-based painter Yao Hsu-teng (姚旭燈) accused Hsueh of forcing a Jap-anese friend of his to run up nearly NT$1.9 million in credit-card charges within an hour after meeting him for a second time in Taipei earlier this month. Yao refused to identify his friend.
Hsueh accused the businessman of being a womanizer, saying he had tried to touch her and take her to his hotel room.
Meanwhile, the China Times daily yesterday ran an interview with a foodstuffs factory owner in Atlanta, Georgia, who accused Hsueh of committing credit-card fraud when she was working at the factory in 1999.
The accusation is yet another blow for Hsueh, who is currently on leave from her job at TVBS following last week's uproar.
The factory owner, identified only by her surname Li, said Hsueh applied for a credit card using the name of Li's brother's ex-wife. Li alleged that Hsueh put more than US$4,000 on the card during her trips back to Taiwan.
Hsueh was a student at Mercer University at the time, according to Li.
The China Times also published photos of two credit cards, one of which, according to Li, bore a forged signature of her brother's ex-wife, which Li said was written by Hsueh.
Li said she did not bring the case to the police at the time because she thought a police record might ruin Hsueh's future. Instead, she and her husband only asked Hsueh to reimburse the money, Li said.
Hsueh has not responded to Li's allegations.
The evening paper China Times Express ran a story saying Hsueh had asked for NT$5 million in compensation from Lu Shih-lung (陸士龍), vice chairman of the Chinese Taipei Bodybuilding Federation, after a car accident in February.
The report said the case has gone to court because Hsueh has refused to agree to an out-of-court settlement.
The circumstances of the accident are not clear.
The Liberty Times also ran a front-page story yesterday accusing Yao, the painter, of being boastful about his personal connections in Japan's political and business circles.
The report also identified the businessman in last week's spat as Hyung Young-gok, a Korean businessman working in Japan.
Yao said on Thursday that Hsueh had bought a diamond watch for NT$1.24 million and some designer purses and clothing costing more than NT$600,000 during her meeting with his businessman friend.
All of the purchases were put on the businessman's credit card, Yao said.
Hsueh began her position at TVBS two years ago and is known for her good looks.
The dispute has been dubbed in the Chinese-language media as a "sugar-daddy and gold-digger story."
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