Ex-Nantou County councilor's 7.5-year fraud sentence upheld

Taipei, March 27 (CNA) The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by former Nantou County Councilor Tseng Chen-yen (曾振炎) and upheld his seven-and-a-half-year sentence by a lower court for making fraudulent expense claims.

In its ruling, handed down on March 21, the Supreme Court said the sentence determined by the Taiwan High Court's Taichung branch in Tseng's second trial was justified based on solid evidence.

Tseng was originally found guilty of violating the Anti-Corruption Act by the Nantou District Court in 2019 for falsely claiming NT$1.99 million in public funding from 2014 to 2017 in his role as a county councilor.

According to the court, Tseng claimed the money to pay the salaries of three county council aides, but Tseng colluded with his wife, surnamed Hou (侯), to hire their relatives to pose as aides and pocket the money themselves.

It was found that one of the aides continued to receive a salary from April to July 2017 after having quit and remitted the money to Hou.

The district court decided on a lighter-than-normal sentence of three-and-a-half years, however, because Tseng admitted to committing a crime and used most of the money to support his activities as a councilor and pay the expenses of his service offices.

The High Court's Taichung Branch upheld that ruling on appeal, but Tseng and his wife again appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which found gaps in the investigation and inconsistencies in the ruling's reasoning, and remanded the case to the High Court to be tried again.

In the retrial in May 2023, the High Court determined that Tseng's case did not warrant leniency because of the long period of time during which he and his wife embezzled money, the large sum that was embezzled, and the fact that his job was to serve constituents and could not be used as an excuse to commit fraud.

It increased Tseng's sentence to seven-and-a-half years, and also increased his wife's sentence from 21 months previously to 30 months, sentences which were upheld by the Supreme Court on March 21.

The Supreme Court's ruling is final and cannot be appealed, and Tseng has been ordered to report to the Nantou District Prosecutors Office on March 28 to start serving his jail term.

Tseng quit as county councilor in January 2023 shortly after being indicted in a separate case for vote-buying, and he was later found guilty of that offense and sentenced to 30 months in jail.

Tseng appealed that ruling and the case is still being investigated.