Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Hsinchu mayoral candidate Lin Keng-jen (林耕仁) yesterday accused Legislator Ann Kao (高虹安), the Taiwan People’s Party’s candidate for Hsinchu mayor, of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
Lin said that a person from Kao’s legislative office had provided documents showing that members of her staff deposited money into an office account, which Kao allegedly used for personal purchases.
The documents, which allegedly included receipts, recorded deposits ranging from NT$10,000 to NT$74,169, Lin said.
Photo: Tsai Chang-sheng, Taipei Times
The staff, whose salaries are paid out of the legislature’s budget, allegedly deposited a total of NT$875,861 into the account from March 2020, shortly after Kao took office, to December 2020, he said.
The money was allegedly used to buy personal care and cosmetic products, train tickets, Japanese dolls, Kao’s book on Hon Hai founder Terry Gou (郭台銘), tickets to baseball games and meals, as well as to provide cash gifts to staff, he said.
Two expenses for NT$80,000 and NT$88,000 were noted as for an assistant whose initial is J, which were allegedly withdrawn by a staff member named Lee Chung-ting (李忠庭), he added.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Lin on Monday last week said that Kao had hired her reported boyfriend, who was later identified as Lee, as an office assistant.
Lin had said it was unclear whether Lee really worked as an assistant, as he apparently had a job somewhere else.
“Kao used the account as her own little treasury,” Lin said.
Kao’s office said that the funds came from staff members “who pay their own expenses out of consideration for the legislator’s workload.”
The fund covers food and beverages offered to guests, meals, gifts, snacks for office staff and other expenses paid for with “pooled funds” donated by office staff, it said.
When assistants are asked to buy food or necessities for Kao’s personal use, they seek reimbursement from the person in charge, who then applies for it with Kao, it said.
Regarding the withdrawals allegedly linked to Lee, it said that the money was used for decorating the office.
The decoration cost more than NT$500,000, NT$300,000 of which was paid for with subsidies from the legislature and the rest covered in advance by Lee, it said.
Lee only sought reimbursement of NT$168,000 and paid the rest out of his own pocket, it added.
Additional reporting by Huang Ching-hsuan
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS