Taipei prosecutors yesterday charged seven people with fraud for allegedly fraudulently receiving subsidies totaling NT$10.49 million (US$374.442 at the current exchange rate) from the Ministry of Culture.
Prosecutors said they have sufficient evidence to press fraud and forgery charges against Lu Chin-cheng (盧欽政) and Chou Chun-liang (周均亮), chairman and vice chairman of the Association of Taipei Publishers.
The other five people indicted include a contractor surnamed Chen (陳), along with staff and accountants working at companies owned by Lu and Chou.
Lu is the owner of Eden Books Co and Chou is the owner of Cosmos Culture Ltd. Chou has also served as chairman of the Association of Taiwan Publishing and Digital Contents Research.
Documents showed that from 2016 to last year, Lu and Chou used the associations as organizers to lead Taiwan’s publishing companies in attending major book exhibitions in the US, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and elsewhere.
Prosecutors said that Lu and Chou asked participating Taiwanese companies to collude in the fraud scheme by providing forged receipts, which they used to apply for ministry subsidies for taking part in international programs representing Taiwan’s publishing industry.
Investigators found that only about 5 percent of the subsidies were deposited in the associations’ bank accounts, with the rest allegedly going to the two publishing companies owned by Lu and Chou.
It was the latest development in a corruption scandal embroiling the ministry.
In April, former head of the ministry’s Department of Humanities and Publications Chu Jui-hao (朱瑞皓) was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in prison for taking bribes from contractors and publishing companies to help them win government tenders. It was the first ruling and can be appealed.
Prosecutors uncovered the alleged irregularities involving Lu and Chou during their investigation of Chu’s case.
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