Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kaohsiung City councilor Huang Shao-ting (黃紹庭) was indicted on fraud charges on Friday for holding US citizenship during his council term.
Kaohsiung prosecutors said Huang was sworn in as a Kaohsiung City Councilor in December 2006, and ended his term in September last year. During his time as a councilor, he received a total of NT$14 million (US$432,000) in salary, research fees, assistant fees and other subsidies and thereby committed fraud, prosecutors said.
Huang said he would only comment after receiving a copy of the indictment.
According to the prosecutors, Huang obtained a master’s degree from a US university in 1995 after, which he lived and worked there. Receiving a green card after five years, he became a US citizen on Jan. 26, 2006.
In October 2006, Huang returned to Kaohsiung, took part in elections for Kaohsiung City council and was elected to the city council.
Prosecutors accused Huang of concealing his US citizenship on assuming the post of city councilor and of not canceling it until June last year.
The Nationality Act (國籍法) bans government officials from holding foreign citizenship and requires those who do to renounce it before assuming office.
In related news, prosecutors said they were still investigating whether former Kaohsiung city councilor Yang Se-yu (楊色玉) of the People First Party held dual citizenship when in office. Yang has been overseas since February and asked her family to resign her post on her behalf. Kaohsiung prosecutors said they launched an investigation after receiving a complaint alleging that Yang holds Canadian citizenship.
In February, the Taipei District Court found former KMT legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) guilty of fraud and forgery for holding US citizenship while serving as an elected official, sentencing her to two years in prison. Lee is appealing the case.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
RSS