The Ministry of Education yesterday demanded that all public high schools, vocational high schools and universities conduct a thorough internal investigation after a retired employee from the nation's top university was detained for allegedly defrauding the school's pension fund of up to NT$22 million (US$700,000).
“It is very important for schools to launch an internal probe ... Schools should take this problem seriously,” said Wang Ching-chien (王敬前), the director of the ministry's Department of Government Ethics.
Wang said the ministry had asked National Taiwan University (NTU) for a report on the school's gate-keeping mechanisms.
The case made headlines after a retired employee from NTU's personnel department was taken in for questioning on Wednesday as a defendant in a corruption case.
Wang Chiung-yun (王瓊雲), 53, allegedly embezzled money from the NTU pension fund for retired campus safety security officers by setting up dummy accounts with information allegedly provided by Wu Chia-lin (吳佳霖), a janitor at NTU, between February 1998 and September 2006.
Wang Chiung-yun — who was previously in charge of retirement, compensation and severance pay at NTU — allegedly gave Wu NT$10,000 for every piece of personnel data Wu obtained from family members and friends for the dummy accounts.
The Taipei District Court early yesterday morning ruled to detain Wang Chiung-yun, and barred Wu from leaving the country.
Wang Ching-chien said the NTU reported the alleged violation to the ministry on April 13 and the ministry immediately took legal action.
Wang Ching-chien said the university did not discover the alleged fraud until earlier this year when Wang Chiung-yun, who retired on Sept. 30, 2007, allegedly tried to commit a similar offense by pretending to help a new school employee with compensation-related business.
University accounting personnel later found a NT$1 million pension application among school documents Wang Chiung-yun offered to help deliver.
NTU vice president Chen Tai-jen (陳泰然) told reporters yesterday that the university had reviewed and improved the school's pension application procedure.
PROCEDURE: Although there is already a cross-strait agreement in place for the extradition of criminals, ample notice is meant to be given to the other side first Ten Taiwanese who were involved in fraud-related crimes in China were extradited back to Taiwan via Kinmen County on Wednesday, four of whom are convicted fraudsters in Taiwan. The 10 people arrived via a ferry operating between Xiamen and Kinmen, also known as the “small three links.” The Kinmen County Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said that four of the 10 extradited people were convicted in Taiwan for committing fraud and contravening the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法), and were on the wanted list. They were immediately arrested upon arrival and sent to Kinmen Prison to serve their sentences following brief questioning, the office said.
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