Taiwan's ex-Guam envoy indicted on corruption, fraud charges

Taipei, June 1 (CNA) The former head of Taiwan's representative office in Guam, Paul Chen (陳盈連), was indicted Monday for allegedly claiming personal expenses as official expenditures, misappropriating public property, and fraudulently obtaining housing subsidies.

According to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office, Chen knowingly filed false rental subsidy applications during a previous posting in Los Angeles between January 2011 and August 2016 after purchasing a personal residence there in January 2011, despite regulations requiring him to declare the property and limiting his housing subsidy entitlement to US$671 per month.

Prosecutors said Chen claimed monthly subsidies of US$2,123 and later US$2,431, receiving excess payments totaling US$104,427.61 during the period.

Prosecutors further alleged that Chen, as the first director-general of the reopened Guam office, submitted personal receipts disguised as official procurement documents between November 2020 and April 2022 to obtain reimbursements through office start-up and operating expense accounts.

Through the scheme, Chen fraudulently obtained reimbursements totaling US$4,180.76, according to the indictment.

In addition, Chen is accused of misappropriating government-purchased items from the Guam office, including an iPhone, a vacuum cleaner, a coffee machine and an iPad Pro, with a combined value of US$10,476.99 while serving as director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Guam from September 2020 to January 2024.

In a separate scheme, prosecutors said Chen fabricated records of guests attending diplomatic, overseas community and consular affairs functions between December 2020 and January 2024, enabling him to fraudulently claim US$11,305.62 in reimbursements.

Chen was charged under the Anti-Corruption Act with fraudulently obtaining property by exploiting his official position and misappropriating public property, as well as causing a public official to make false entries in official documents under the Criminal Code.

Also indicted were Lu Chi-chang (盧啟章), first secretary at Taiwan's representative office in Guam, and former vice consul Gary Huang (黃嘉郁), on charges of causing public officials to make false entries in official documents. Prosecutors additionally requested summary judgment proceedings against Huang.

Prosecutors said that Chen, Lu and Huang knowingly failed to conduct physical inventories of state-owned property at the Guam office in 2022 and 2023.

Despite this, Lu allegedly completed annual self-inspection forms stating that office staff had conducted inventories and verified that all assets matched official records, prosecutors said, adding that the false statements undermined MOFA's property management system.