Former Keelung city councilor Han Liang-chi (韓良圻) was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison and stripped of civil rights for three years for corruption.
The verdict is final after the Supreme Court rejected Han’s appeal on Wednesday last week.
Han was found guilty by the High Court in December last year of fraudulently obtaining property under cover of legal authority between 2009 and 2018.
Photo: Liu Yung-yun, Taipei Times
He misappropriated more than NT$6.58 million (US$211,704) in public funds by claiming they were used to pay assistant fees, the verdict said.
During the trial, Han denied all wrongdoing, and said he had no illegal intent.
He said he used the funds for recurring expenses at his service office, such as hiring assistants, as well as nonrecurring costs related to his role as a city councilor.
The court said that Han claimed assistant fees in the names of his friends without actually hiring them, demonstrating illegal intent from the outset.
How he used the funds is irrelevant, the verdict said.
Han served five terms as a Keelung city councilor from 1998 to 2018 for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the People First Party and as an independent candidate.
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