Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Dai-hua (林岱樺) and nine others were yesterday indicted on corruption charges for allegedly filing fraudulent claims for assistants’ salaries.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office accused Lin of using the names of relatives to embezzle NT$14.73 million (US$495,393 at the current exchange rate) of assistant wages, along with fraudulently claiming NT$220,000 for overtime work by assistants from 2011 to 2014.
Representing Kaohsiung’s fourth electoral district, Lin has won the seat five consecutive times since 2011. She had announced her intention to run in the DPP’s primary for Kaohsiung mayor and was widely viewed to be a front-runner, but the indictment could derail her bid, pundits said.
Photo: Taipei Times
The other nine people included Lin’s constituency office director surnamed Chou (周), a staff member surnamed Lien (連), an accountant surnamed Huang (黃) at Lin’s legislative office, along with Lin’s younger brother and his wife surnamed Wang (王), and adviser Hung Cheng-wei (洪正威).
Prosecutors accused Lin of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), misappropriating public funds and making false entries, while the other suspects allegedly aided in embezzling assistant wages and forging declarations to claim overtime pay.
Prosecutors also charged Hung, a Buddhist master at Kaohsiung’s Dongfa Temple (通法寺), with breach of trust and embezzling public donations. They alleged that while holding Buddhist teaching and ritual sessions, Hung sought donations from attendees and siphoned NT$5.91 million into a fund for Lin’s legislative office to pay assistants.
Lin issued a statement denying any wrongdoing, saying that all finances and accounting were handled by her father, Lin San-lang (林三郎), a former mayor of then-Fongshan City (鳳山), and that after he died in 2019, her elder sister, Lin Tai-jung (林岱融), took charge of the finances and accounting.
“I am innocent of the charges. My lawyer and I will present evidence in court to clear my name and acquit all members of my office’s team,” the statement said.
“Through all these years, I have held on my ethical principles and worked for the people of Kaohsiung,” she said.
“I believe in our justice system, and they will find the truth in the end. I will fully cooperate with the investigation to defend my reputation,” she added.
“I will survive this storm and will work and take action to prove that I am innocent of the charges,” it said.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS