Prosecutors on Thursday indicted a doctor at Taipei Veterans General Hospital for allegedly conspiring with medical device manufacturers to charge the hospital for fake purchases.
The doctor, surnamed Cheng (鄭), oversaw administrative matters at the hospital’s Neural Regeneration Center and was a professor at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office said in the indictment.
From 2002 to 2023, Cheng allegedly instructed a scientist, surnamed Chang (張), to sign fake procurement contracts with a couple surnamed Yu (余) and Chu (朱), who ran a medical device company, prosecutors said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
For smaller purchases, Cheng and Chang would inflate the bill with items they did not actually need or intend to receive, the indictment said.
Yu and Chu’s company would provide an invoice, but would not ship the items, it said.
Cheng and Chang would falsely claim receipt of the items, and the four suspects divided the payments from the hospital among them, it said.
The group submitted at least 38 fake procurement claims, defrauding the hospital of NT$28.11 million (US$918,177), the indictment said.
Cheng and Chang also helped the company win long-term contracts, providing additional opportunities for fraud, prosecutors said.
Cheng and Chang used similar methods to embezzle an additional NT$5.65 million from research funding from the National Science and Technology Council, the indictment said.
Prosecutors said that Cheng and Chang used at least NT$6.39 million of the illicit funds to pay credit card bills, while also spending the money on vehicles, stocks, insurance policies, shopping and travel.
The alleged fraudulent activity was uncovered after a source at the hospital tipped off the Ministry of Justice’s Agency Against Corruption, which transferred the case to prosecutors.
The suspects were charged with crimes including aggravated fraud under the Criminal Code, contraventions of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) and causing a public official to make a false entry in an official document.
Chang, Yu and Chu all admitted guilt during questioning, while Chang voluntarily paid back her illicit gains, prosecutors said.
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