The Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) on charges of embezzling more than NT$14 million (US$458,340) of publicly funded assistant salaries.
Lin and the director of her constituency service center, surnamed Huang (黃), have been indicted for allegedly fraudulently obtaining assets under the cover of legal authority, in contravention of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), and for causing a public official to make a false entry, breaking the Criminal Code, prosecutors said.
Her assistant, also surnamed Huang, was indicted for allegedly lying to prosecutors.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
Another 13 people were given deferred prosecution.
Prosecutors said that Lin fraudulently claimed NT$14,127,388 in assistant salaries from the former Tainan County Council, Tainan City Council and the Legislative Yuan during her time as Tainan county councilor, Tainan City councilor and legislator from 2009 to last year.
She allegedly falsely listed private assistants as publicly funded, inflated reported salaries and claimed pay for assistants who existed in name only, prosecutors said.
Lin allegedly used the funds for her service office or personal use, they added.
The legislator has returned in full her alleged illegal gains.
Lin was questioned in August last year and released on bail of NT$1 million the next day, on the condition that she does not leave the country.
As her alleged criminal activities spanned 15 years, and involved numerous people and a large sum of money, the investigation, questioning and information cross-referencing was long and time-consuming, requiring a total of 46 interviews, they said.
Lin served as a councilor in Tainan County from 1998 to 2010, before it was restructured as a special municipality.
She then served as a Tainan City councilor from 2010 to 2020 and became a lawmaker.
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