Hsinchu mayor receives over 7-year jail sentence for corruption

Taipei, July 26 (CNA) The Taipei District Court on Friday handed down a seven-year-and-four-month prison sentence to Hsinchu Mayor Kao Hung-an (高虹安) for corruption.

Kao, 40, who was found guilty of violating the Anti-Corruption Act and falsifying documents under the Criminal Code, will also be deprived of her civil rights for four years, the court said in a news release.

According to Taipei prosecutors, the mayor was indicted in August last year for allegedly misusing NT$460,030 (US$14,027) of public funds, through fraudulent payroll and overtime schemes when she was a lawmaker from February 2020 to December 2022.

In the indictment, Kao's former legislative office directors Chen Huan-yu (陳奐宇) and Huang Hui-wen (黃惠玟), as well as former aides Wang Yu-wen (王郁文) and Chen Yi-kai (陳昱愷), were also charged with corruption due to their involvement.

Prosecutors alleged that the four individuals, who were all hired using public funds claimed by Kao, inflated their monthly overtime at her instruction to pocket the extra money, which was then handed over to Kao for use at her discretion.

According to information on the Legislative Yuan website, each lawmaker is entitled to recruit eight to 14 contracted assistants under Legislative Yuan payroll rules. Such personnel must be discharged if their legislators fail to win re-election.

From Feb. 1, 2020, Huang, Wang and Chen Huan-yu were each paid a monthly salary ranging between NT$46,000 and NT$70,000, the court said.

Citing an example, the court said that from March to November 2020, Kao instructed Huang to apply for monthly salaries of NT$70,000, NT$67,360, NT$67,161 or NT$72,000, which exceeded her actual monthly pay of NT$62,000, based on false applications for overtime.

The same method was employed by Chen Huan-yu and Wang, who both made false applications for overtime on Kao's instructions from March to November 2020, the court said.

After examining the evidence, the court ruled that Kao was guilty of embezzling NT$116,514, and not NT$460,030 as charged by prosecutors.

Meanwhile, Chen Huan-yu, Huang and Wang were found to have embezzled NT$506, NT$5,642 and NT$466, respectively, the court said.

In its ruling, Chen Huan-yu received a jail term of one year, suspended for three years and his civil rights stripped for one year. Huang received a two-year jail term, suspended for five years, while Wang got a two-year sentence suspended for five years.

Chen Yi-kai was found not guilty of the charges, the Taipei court ruled.

The ruling can still be appealed.

Following Friday's verdict, the Hsinchu mayor released a video to the media via a reporters' social media chat group at 12:38 p.m. announcing her immediate resignation from the opposition Taiwan People's Party (TPP).

Having been found guilty, Kao was automatically suspended as Hsinchu mayor in accordance with related legal provisions.

In the video, Kao also posted a message saying the ruling was unprecedented when compared to similar cases involving the payrolls of legislative assistants over the past decade, emphasizing that she will appeal the case.

Kao was previously an aide to business tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘), the founder of iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., better known globally as Foxconn.

She later sat in the Legislative Yuan as a member of the TPP, which was founded by former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in 2019.