Taiwan High Court upholds KMT lawmaker's sentence for corruption

Taichung, Sept. 11 (CNA) The Taiwan High Court Taichung Branch on Thursday rejected an appeal by Kuomintang (KMT) lawmaker Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒), upholding his prison sentence of eight years and four months for corruption and related crimes.

The court said the corruption conviction can still be appealed to Taiwan's Supreme Court, so the opposition lawmaker's seat in the Legislative Yuan is not immediately affected.

Prosecutors said Yen used a sham house transaction with a design company to hide the illegal occupation of state-owned land in Taichung's Shalu District.

They said Yen and construction company head Lin Chin-fu (林進福) arranged a NT$45.41 million (US$1.5 million) "loan" to design company head Chang Yu-ting (張于廷), who then used the same amount to purchase the property.

Prosecutors also alleged that Yen used Lin as a proxy to illegally collect NT$1.08 million in Legislative Yuan staff salaries, citing account records such as a "Yen collection and payment summary" that listed those salaries as key evidence of a violation of Taiwan's Anti-Corruption Act.

In July 2024, the Taichung District Court convicted Yen of corruption, sentencing him to seven years and 10 months in prison and stripping him of civil rights for three years, and added a six-month term for document forgery, convertible to a fine.

However, the district court found Yen not guilty of unauthorized occupation of publicly-owned land.

The Taiwan High Court Taichung Branch Court upheld those findings Thursday, saying the forgery and land encroachment rulings are final and ordering Yen and Lin to be restricted from leaving Taiwan for eight months.

Outside the courthouse, Yen said he "cannot accept the verdict," which he described as "judicial persecution."

He also argued that assistant duties and salary disbursements were "entirely under Lin Chin-fu's control."

Regarding the house sale, Yen said it was "a real transaction without any falsehood, and all money flows were presented."