Taipei City Councilor Chen Yi-chung (陳怡君) of the Democratic Progressive Party at a pre-trial hearing on Friday pleaded guilty to charges of corruption and fraudulently claiming subsidies.
Chen, 46, along with the head of her office, Chang Hui-lin (張惠霖), were taken from the Taipei Detention Center to the Shilin District Court, where they both pleaded guilty, and asked for leniency and to be released on bail after being detained since February.
“I plead guilty. I’m sorry,” Chen told the court.
Photo: CNA
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen and Chang on June 3, accusing them of fraudulently claiming subsidies by listing three family members or friends as Chen’s assistants, even though they did not actually work for her.
Prosecutors argued that the two improperly claimed NT$3.84 million (US$130,346) in subsidies since the city councilor first took office in late 2018, and that they used the money to pay rent, buy stocks or spend it on other personal items.
The two were also accused of taking bribes of more than NT$700,000 from two developers to expedite permits for construction or development projects between August 2023 and February this year.
Chen said that she and Chang claimed the subsidies to hire and pay assistants, and also to pay the rent and utilities of outside service offices and other obligations.
Activities organized by her office for which she received NT$20,000 to NT$30,000 in subsidies actually cost NT$150,000, she said.
She used half of her monthly salary as a city councilor to pay her mortgage, but she did not account for normal subsidies given to city councilors to cover expenses, she said.
Regarding the bribery charge, Chen told the court that she took the money and contacted civil servants about the development projects.
“Honestly, I didn’t think that much. I was not familiar with quid pro quo,” she told the court.
Chen’s legal counsel asked the court for a reduced sentence, as she admitted to the crimes and handed over the illegal gains.
Chang asked to be released from detention so she could go through documents and receipts to prove the money was not used for personal gain.
Her legal counsel asked the court to consider a reduced and suspended sentence.
The judge remanded the two to custody and said that the preparatory process for the trial had been concluded.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS