KMT lawmaker Yen Kuan-heng sentenced 94 months in jail for corruption

Taichung, July 26 (CNA) Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒), an opposition Kuomintang (KMT) lawmaker, was sentenced to a jail term of seven years and 10 months for his role in a corruption case in which he pocketed a public salary earmarked for an legislator's office assistant, the Taichung District Court said Friday.

The district court also sentenced Yen, 46, to an additional jail term of six months for forgery of a document, but this sentence may be commuted to a fine.

Yen was also stripped of his civil rights for three years, according to the court.

Yen was indicted in April 2023 with prosecutors accusing the lawmaker of violating the Anti-Corruption Act by using his business partner Lin Chin-fu (林進福) to falsely claim to be his office assistant in order to illicitly receive NT$1.08 million (US$32,927) in public money between January 2018 and January 2020.

Yen's corrupt conduct was uncovered by prosecutors who originally launched an investigation after the lawmaker was accused in 2021 of illegally using public of 1,097.14 square meters in Taichung's Shalu District, where he served as a legislator, for the purpose of building a private luxury home for himself.

In addition, Yen forged a document to sell the luxury home and the land for NT$45.41 million, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said the cost of building the luxury home was NT$84.92 million, but Yen sold the property for a much lower price after allegations surfaced that he had illegally occupied public land for private gain.

Speaking with reporters, Taichung District Court judge Lee Chin-ching (李進清) said the court found "powerful evidence" proving that Yen stole public funds, citing bookkeeping records made by Lin's wife.

The records indicated that Yen pocketed the salary paid by the Legislative Yuan for a legislator's assistant between Feb. 5, 2018 and Jan. 15, 2020.

Lee said the penalty faced by Yen was appropriate under the law.

For his role as the fraudulent assistant, Lin was sentenced to seven years and eight months in jail and stripped of his civil rights for two years, according to the ruling.

Lin, who was also implicated in the document forgery for the property transaction, was sentenced to an additional six months in jail, but this may be commuted to a fine.

The ruling also ordered the confiscation of about NT$1.04 million stolen by Yen and Lin as part of the "dummy assistant" scheme.

As for the accusation of illegal occupation of public land for private gain, Lee said the court found that Yen had paid rent for the land in Shalu District on which the private property was built, so the lawmaker was found not guilty on this charge.

Denying the allegations, Yen said Lin had been a volunteer at his office for years and had been listed as an assistant after one of Yen's assistants quit in 2017.

Yen said he used his own money pay his assistants, and the disposal of the home in the case was because he and his family were "harassed all day long" for political reasons so he was "willing to sell the property for a lower price to protect his family."

The lawmaker said the ruling was "a gross insult." He said the decision was politically motivated and he will appeal it.

Yen may not be dismissed as a lawmaker until the decision is finalized by a higher court, according to the district court judge.

Yen was first elected to the Legislative Yuan in 2013 in a by-election in Taichung's Shalu District, replacing his father Yen Ching-piao (顏清標) of the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union, who was expelled from office after being sentenced to prison in November 2012 on corruption charges.

Yen Kuan-heng won a second term in the 2016 legislative election, but in 2020 he lost the seat by a small margin of 5,000 votes to Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟), who became the Taiwan Statebuilding Party's only elected lawmaker.

Chen was ousted, however, in a recall election on Oct. 23, 2021. Yen Kuan-heng then competed with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) in a by-election held in January 2022, with Yen losing to Lin.

In January 2024, Yen won back his seat after winning more votes than Lin.