Yu Wen (余文), a former secretary to President Ma Ying-jeou during his time as Taipei mayor, was released on parole yesterday after serving nine months in jail.
Wu was found guilty of graft and sentenced to 14 months for using fraudulent receipts to claim reimbursements from Ma’s special mayoral allowance fund.
Yu was a city government staffer when Ma was accused of misusing his special allowance during his eight-year tenure as mayor.
PHOTO: YU JUI-JEN, TAIPEI TIMES
The case began more than two years ago when the Special Investigation Panel of the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors’ Office indicted Ma and Yu on charges of corruption.
Prosecutors alleged that Ma had embezzled more than NT$12 million (US$400,000) from the mayoral fund with Yu’s help.
Prosecutors discovered that Ma had donated more than NT$11 million to charities during the same period.
Yu admitted to forging receipts to apply for funds for Ma.
The Taipei District Court handed down the first verdict on Aug. 14, 2007.
Ma was found not guilty of corruption. Yu, however, was sentenced to 14 months, which was later reduced to 12 months by the Taiwan High Court. The guilty verdict and jail sentence were upheld by the Supreme Court.
Yu was released early because of good behavior. He left Taipei Prison at about 10:30am, where he was immediately approached by reporters.
Asked whether he felt Ma should have pardoned him, he said: “I made the mistakes myself, so I should take responsibility.”
Yu told reporters he was thankful for the “many friends and family” who had supported him, but made no mention of the president.
He said he did not feel he had been wronged by the judicial system, because he had made mistakes in applying for the reimbursements for Ma’s expenses from the fund.
Yu denied corruption, saying, “I did not take one cent.”
When asked whether he felt he had been used as a scapegoat, Yu declined to respond, but said he would face his future with courage.
Yu said it would be best if he could find a job, but that no one at the Presidential Office had contacted him about the matter.
Before beginning his job hunt, Yu said he would spend some time with his family and enjoy his long-awaited freedom, adding that he had never truly appreciated his freedom until he lost it.
A tearful Yu said he wanted to apologize to his parents for the distress he had caused them and to thank his wife for taking care of their two children while he was away.
Yu said he had received much encouragement from many people during his imprisonment, but did not specify whether Ma had was one of them.
In accordance with tradition, Yu had a haircut and put on new clothes and shoes before returning to his hometown of Taichung.
When asked whether Ma would help Yu find a job, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) yesterday said the office had been in contact with Yu’s family and would be happy to assist Yu in any way should he require any assistance.
Wang said the Presidential Office regretted that Yu had not received a probationary sentence. Yu should have been entitled to it because it was his first criminal offense and “just a receipt problem,” Wang said.
Wang declined to comment on why Ma had not pardoned Yu, saying that Ma did not make anything difficult for him.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
RSS