A court yesterday upheld a two-year suspension from work for a Legislative Yuan worker as he serves a four-year sentence for forging documents to allow 250 Chinese to work in Taiwan.
The suspension of Lin Yao-ting (林耀庭), a clerk at the legislature’s General Affairs Section, was upheld by the Judicial Yuan’s Disciplinary Court, which is in charge of assessing and imposing punishments for contraventions of the law that civil servants commit in the course of their work.
Lin was involved in a 2020 case in which New Taipei City-based Wisbet Digital Entertainment Co (奕智博數位) — purportedly an online gaming firm — was found to have been channeling money from China to be laundered in Taiwan.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Investigators found that Lin colluded with Wisbet to forge documents to help 215 Chinese travel to Taiwan from 2018 to 2020 on business visas or to work at Wisbet branch offices in southern Taiwan.
Lin was paid a total of NT$1.986 million (US$67,310) in commissions for each person who was approved to travel, investigators said.
Lin filled out forms with false information, asked colleagues for help and pressured personnel at the National Immigration Agency and other agencies to fast-track approvals, investigators said.
The Tainan District Court found Lin guilty in the first ruling last year, imposing a three-year, six-month sentence for contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
The disciplinary court early this year ruled that he had breached provisions of the Civil Service Act (公務員服務法) and undermined public trust in government officials, handing him a two-year suspension from his job and confiscating the illegal profit.
Lin appealed the disciplinary court’s decision, but his motion was dismissed yesterday.
Members of the Taiwan Anti-Corruption and Whistleblower Protection Association during the trial last year had demanded a more thorough investigation.
The case seriously undermined government agencies and it is likely that some politicians had masterminded the operation, they said.
“How could a lowly civil servant hold such sway to enable so many Chinese to receive visas?” the association asked in a statement at the time. “How can such a large-scale crime network operate in the legislature?”
“Lin’s action helped many Chinese gain illegal entry to Taiwan. Who knows what criminal activity they engaged in while they were here,” the statement said. “This situation has probably done huge damage to national security.”
“However, top officials have been shielded from investigators,” it said. “The judiciary must find out who else was involved and why so many agencies cooperated, but were silent during the investigation.”
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