Investigators have received more material from whistle-blowers implicating Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Hsinchu mayoral candidate Ann Kao (高虹安), who is accused of wage fraud and profiteering, a former TPP official said yesterday.
Lin Guan-nian (林冠年), who was to represent the party in the mayoral election in Hsinchu County’s Jhubei City (竹北) until his party endorsement was withdrawn because of drunk-driving accusations, told reporters that the material, which allegedly proves that Kao engaged in accounting fraud, had been handed to the Investigation Bureau.
Lin, a former director of the TPP’s Hsinchu County chapter who has quit the party and is running for mayor in Jhubei as an independent, said the documents came from former assistants of Kao.
Photo: CNA
The assistants accused her of financial fraud and corruption, Lin said.
The new accusations add to reports of alleged fraud in Kao’s mayoral campaign by Mirror Media.
“We have received these documents and related material from former office assistants working for Kao,” Lin said.
The assistants had shares of their wages illegally deducted, and Kao spent the money on personal items, Lin said.
Kao was an “autocratic boss” who exploited and oppressed her assistants, Lin said, accusing her of contravening the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
She forced employees to contribute to her personal budget and registered people as full-time employees even though they had jobs elsewhere, Lin said.
“The former assistants want the truth to be told,” Lin said, urging understanding for him not revealing their identities, as that might expose them to potential harm.
The new allegations come after reports in the past few months that Kao allegedly collected undue wages from her former employer, a government-linked institute, while studying for a doctorate in the US.
Lin said the former assistants decided to provide the material after Kao reacted arrogantly to the accusations and “deceived the public.”
She baselessly accused the assistants of being responsible for her wrongdoing, which added to their motivation to come forward, Lin said.
The assistants initially wanted to work for Kao because they thought the TPP has high aspirations and stands for “clean ethics,” but found that the party is more corrupt than established parties of the pan-blue and pan-green camps, Lin said.
“They were very disappointed to find that out,” he said.
Lin also accused Kao of reacting to the new accusations by attempting to collude with her staff.
“Kao is now contacting her current and former office assistants,” demanding that they tell investigators her version of the story, Lin said.
However, the assistants who provided the material would under no circumstances follow the orders of their former employer, Lin said, urging Kao to tell the truth.
Kao has denied any wrongdoing, saying she followed the law when paying her assistants and reporting to the legislature
TPP Legislator Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶), the party’s Taoyuan mayoral candidate, said that the TPP “will respect the outcome of the investigation, and at the end give a full explanation to the public.”
Meanwhile, other candidates for Hsinchu mayor chided TPP lawmakers for alleged wage fraud by registering “dummy staff.”
A source said that the funds they received for paying staff were used for election campaigns.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Hsinchu mayoral candidate Shen Hui-hung (沈慧虹) said such practices are illegal.
TPP lawmakers allegedly asked staff to contribute NT$600,000 annually to the party’s coffers, Shen said, likening such practices to what was common among Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials during the White Terror era.
At the time, money disbursed for public purposes was spent on the ruling party, Shen said.
“Does the public want this kind of misconduct?” Shen asked.
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,