The Taipei District Court today sentenced a former Taipei city councilor and her assistant on charges of fraud and corruption for embezzling public funds.
Former Taipei city councilor Lin Ying-meng (林穎孟) and her aide, Yeh Yao-chang (葉曜彰), were sentenced to three years and eight months and five years and eight months in prison respectively.
The ruling can be appealed.
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
In a Facebook post, Lin said that “not a dime went into my pocket,” adding that the judge ignored evidence and presumed her guilt instead of innocence.
Prosecutors said that Lin hired a part-time student surnamed Yang (楊) to work in the office between December 2018 and September 2019, but continued to claim them as an employee after that date.
Lin claimed NT$35,563 as a subsidy to pay the student’s salary and insurance until November 2019, prosecutors said.
Separately, prosecutors said that Lin also hired Yeh, her boyfriend at the time, as her publicly funded assistant.
There were more issues the following year after Yeh left his job in Lin’s office and started a public relations firm on March 31, 2020, prosecutors said.
Lin allegedly helped Yeh forge documents to obtain city funds to pay the salary of an employee, surnamed Kuo (郭), at his firm starting in April 2020, prosecutors said.
Kuo was in charge of graphic design, photography and producing content for Lin’s social media, for which Lin charged the city NT$231,656, they said.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office brought charges against Lin and Yeh in August 2022 under the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) and Criminal Code.
Lin was elected in December 2018 as one of 12 councilors representing the city’s Daan (大安) and Wenshan (文山) districts. She was a member of the New Power Party from 2017 to 2020.
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