Internet celebrity Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如) was indicted yesterday on charges of fraud and forgery after he allegedly embezzled NT$9.77 million (US$317,393) in public funds by inflating the cost of hosting the 2017 and 2018 WTA Taiwan Open, a professional women’s tennis tournament.
Prosecutors said that Yang used the opportunity presented by holding an international tennis competition to seek personal gain, charging her with defrauding the country’s limited subsidy funds and inflating the cost of hosting the event through false invoices and other documents.
Yang’s conduct also affected the ability of the government to allocate resources to other sports, prosecutors said.
Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei Times
During the investigation, Yang denied wrongdoing, had a bad attitude and claimed that documents had been lost or discarded, prosecutors said, adding that they recommended the courts impose a heavy punishment and confiscate all of the proceeds of her criminal activity.
Her conduct undermined the public-private cooperative model for holding international sports events, prosecutors said.
Is Media Co, for which Yang is a representative and the owner, in 2015 won a bid to host the WTA Taiwan Open, the indictment said.
In September 2015, Yang signed a contract with PCG Bros Sports Management Co, under which each company was required to contribute NT$25 million to host the 2016 event, it said.
However, the costs incurred by PCG Bros to host the 2016 event surpassed the NT$25 million specified in the contract, with the shortfall made up by Is Media, the indictment said.
Concerned that it could lose money hosting the following editions, PCG Bros agreed to let Is Media be the sole organizer, while it served a supplementary role in organizing the 2017 and 2018 tournaments.
Is Media applied to the Taipei Department of Sports and the Ministry of Education’s Sports Administration for subsidies through Taiwan’s national and children’s tennis associations.
In December 2016, Yang signed a memorandum of understanding and a purchase contract with the sports department and the national tennis association to organize the 2017 event in Taipei, the indictment said.
However, Yang allegedly used false invoices issued by two other companies she owned and other falsified documents such as financial statements and balance sheets to inflate the cost of hosting the event and thereby illegally claimed NT$515,523 in subsidies from the city department, it said.
In December 2016, Yang used the same approach to embezzle NT$1.79 million from the Sports Administration, and NT$3.5 million from the Tourism Bureau, prosecutors said.
After Yang secured the rights to host the 2018 WTA Taiwan Open, she again applied to the Taipei Department of Sports, the Sports Administration and the Tourism Bureau for subsidies with fake invoices, making fraudulent claims for NT$305,760, NT$659,839 and NT$3 million respectively, they said.
Yang has been accused by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei city councilors of using her position as a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and connections to senior DPP figures to secure government funding.
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