Keelung City councilor receives suspended sentence for corruption

Taipei, May 22 (CNA) Keelung City Councilor Chang Hao-han (張顥瀚) has been handed a suspended sentence after being found guilty by a district court of embezzling public funds.

Chang, from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), fraudulently claimed a total of NT$782,486 (US$26,079) by falsifying the salary of his office assistant and registering his mother as a phantom employee, the Keelung District Court said in its verdict on Thursday.

According to the indictment document, Chang was charged with inflating the salary of his office assistant, a woman surnamed Chen (陳) who he hired in January 2019.

Chen was instructed by the councilor to report her monthly salary as being between NT$43,900 and NT$53,000, even though she received much less than that, prosecutors alleged.

Chen actually received a monthly pay of NT$35,000 from January to December 2019, and NT$37,000 from January 2020 to September 2024.

Based on that difference, Chang fraudulently pocketed NT$670,033 in assistant salaries and Lunar New Year bonuses.

Meanwhile, prosecutors also charged the councilor with naming his mother as a publicly-funded assistant at various times from March 2019 to September 2020, although she actually did no work. As a result, he pocketed a total of NT$112,453.

In December 2024, Chang was indicted by Keelung prosecutors for suspected contravention of the Anti-Corruption Act.

As a city councilor, he knowingly violated the law by embezzling assistant salaries and betraying the trust of those who voted him into office, the court said.

However, citing Chang's admission of guilt and return of the illicit gains, the court on Thursday handed him a prison sentence of 24 months and deprivation of civil rights for four years, both suspended for five years. He remains a Keelung city councilor

As for Chen, the court gave her a sentence of 16 months and deprivation of civil rights for two years, both suspended for four years.

The two rulings can be appealed.