Recordings yesterday emerged with apparent conversations relating to threats and intimidation allegedly being uttered by a supervisor in Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Ann Kao’s (高虹安) office toward staff members.
Kao, who is the party’s Hsinchu mayoral candidate in tomorrow’s election, has been involved in controversies and alleged financial improprieties connected with her legislative office.
In the recordings, a supervisor at Kao’s legislative office allegedly threatens an assistant Kao fired, after the assistant requested wages owed and severance pay.
Photo: CNA
The recordings were presented to media by a person named Liu Yu (劉宇), who acted as an independent whistle-blower.
A female is heard on the recording, identified by Liu as a supervisor, speaking on behalf of Kao, implying that there would be consequences for going to arbitration or litigation on wage dispute.
“You have to know that our boss was vice president at Hon Hai Technology Group ... they have about 200 or 300 lawyers in its legal section... So there is no need for that, and our boss would not want to take that step,” she is heard saying.
An apparent sexual harassment situation is also heard being discussed on the recording, which allegedly involved a male who harassed a female colleague.
In the recording, the person Liu identified as the supervisor is heard saying: “If you speak publicly on this matter, everyone will be hurt... I will recommend to the legislator that someone has to be dismissed, and it will likely be [the female assistant].”
Kao said the audio recording does not present the proper context of the situation, and it has infringed on individual rights of the office supervisor and herself.
“We are discussing this matter with a lawyer,” Kao said.
Meanwhile, former TPP official Lin Guan-nian (林冠年) said he turned over computer data, audio recordings and office accounting documents, obtained from employees in Kao’s legislative office, to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
Following judicial complaints filed earlier this month regarding allegations of wage fraud and embezzlement, prosecutors on Thursday last week began investigating Kao and her boyfriend, Lee Chung-ting (李忠庭).
Lin — who withdrew as the TPP mayoral candidate in Hsinchu County’s Jhubei City (竹北) after an alleged impaired driving incident — called on Kao to resign out of “fairness” to prosecutors.
“I ask Kao to resign her legislator position now, so prosecutors do not come under political pressure in this case,” he said.
Former assistants have accused Kao of wage fraud, embezzlement and illegal payroll deductions that allegedly were used to pay Kao’s personal expenditures.
Judicial investigators said that Kao and Lee could face forgery and embezzlement charges, along with breaches of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
GREATER NUMBER: The sorties might have been a response to the US and the EU expressing concern on Friday over China’s ‘provocations’ in the Taiwan Strait Twenty-five Chinese military aircraft and four naval ships were detected around Taiwan from 6am Saturday to 6am yesterday, including eight airplanes that had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and another two that entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft that entered Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ were a Y-8 anti-submarine plane and a BZK-005 uncrewed aerial vehicle, the Ministry of National Defense said. The aircraft that flew across the median line include two Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, four J-16 multipurpose fighters and two J-10 jets, the ministry’s official Web site showed. Taiwan’s armed forces monitored the
Mask easing: Teachers are allowed to take their masks off while lecturing indoors, but students should keep theirs on, as COVID-19 measures ease this week The Ministry of Education (MOE) yesterday released new on-campus COVID-19 prevention guidelines, stating that masks can be taken off while exercising, singing, dancing, performing, taking photographs, dining, drinking, video and voice recording, hosting events, presenting speeches and lecturing outdoors. Large outdoor events organized by schools should comply with the mask regulations issued by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), it added. The new guidelines came into effect yesterday, and people in Taiwan are no longer required to wear masks outdoors for the first time since May 19 last year. The CECC announced the easing of the mask mandate on Monday, adding that it
LUNAR NEW YEAR PEAK: Taiwanese who are in China should get vaccinated and consider returning early, as infection rates are expected to increase, the CECC said China faces five major problems once COVID-19 begins spreading there, with a peak in infections likely during the Lunar New Year holidays, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), said yesterday. Wang wrote on Facebook that according to the center’s data, the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in China is worth noting, as the new Omicron subvariants BF.7 and BA.5.2 spreading in China are highly infectious and are more transmissible than the previously dominating Omicron subvariants. “The virus cannot be eliminated even under China’s strict control measures,” he wrote. “Its policy
‘SEXUAL ASSAULT’: Taipei prosecutors said that cooperation agreements between Taiwan and the Czech Republic grant Czech officials protection against prosecution The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday reaffirmed that it would not charge a Czech official with sexual assault because he is protected by diplomatic immunity. The office released a statement saying it has verified that the man works for the Czech Economic and Cultural Office Taipei’s foreign affairs corps and is thereby protected from criminal prosecution. A foreign graduate student in Taiwan had filed a complaint alleging that the section head of the Czech Economic and Trade Section had sexually assaulted her on April 21 last year. The woman said the Czech official had invited her to his home and then forced her
RSS