(Reporter Wang Yinfang/Full Report) Hsinchu mayoral candidate Gao Hongan from the People’s Party was exposed to fraudulently receiving assistant pay, which was a shock bomb before the general election! Compared to past cases in China, a prosecutor frankly said that Gao Hongan “can’t escape!” Due to the low salary and high reporting of civilian assistants’ fees, involuntary donations, embezzlement and other criminal appearances, almost all have been in past cases, which was determined by the court to constitute the offenses of ” exploitation of official opportunities to defraud property” and forgery of documents under the “Corruption Prevention Law”.
In recent years, there have been numerous cases of fraudulent receipt of assistant fees on behalf of the people. The first one that attracted public attention was the Kaohsiung City Council in 2008. At that time, prosecutors from the office of the Kaohsiung District Attorney investigated the case of the sale of privileges by city councilor Lin Wuzhong. Lin Wuzhong was not convinced and actually sued in court. 2 councilors were involved in lien draws and falsely declared assistants’ fees. For this reason, Xiong Xiong raided the city council and summoned nearly 100 people. Finally, it was found that 20 advisers, including former President Xu Kunyuan, were suspected of using their heads to reclaim the assistants’ fees. The prosecution ruled that the assistant’s fee was a substantial subsidy to the congressman, but was declared under an assumed name. Therefore, he was only prosecuted for the crime of forgery of documents, and both could be exempt from fines.
However, judicial intervention in the investigation has not curbed this trend of fraudulent receipts: for more than a decade, deputies convicted of being involved in the assistant fees case are still “successful”, regardless of the blue and green. it is established that it was in the deputy’s personal pockets, he will be brought to justice for the crime of corruption starting from seven years’ imprisonment.
Assistant Fei Jin’s pockets seized and sentenced to 7 years
Taking stock of the cases of MPs who fraudulently received pay for assistants in recent years, the most severely convicted was Cheng Wanguan, a former Penghu county councilor with no party affiliation, sentenced in June by the Supreme Court to 10 years. followed by Chen Cuiluan, former Kuomintang City Councilor of Kaohsiung, who was sentenced to 3 years and 8 months in 2018 for fraudulently receiving 30,000 yuan from MPs for investigation. remote monitoring of the prison, and fraudulently received 4.49 million yuan in assistant fees by means of low salary and high ratio and number of people. The appeal is in the second instance.
The third highest conviction is the current New Taipei City Councilor Wang Shuhui. She was accused of fraudulently receiving 3.35 million yuan by using assistant principals, low salaries and high relationships. In January of this year she was sentenced to 9 years in prison by the New District Court of Taipei. Her suspension of powers is also being appealed to the High Court.
A senior prosecutor said Chen Cuiluan and Wang Shuhui received heavy sentences in the first trial for the same reason, namely that the confession was withdrawn during the trial, and the criminal facts admitted during the investigation were all denied in court. , but they could not justify themselves, and even lie about the assistant returning voluntarily Donations or debt repayment and thanks, but they were all caught by the judge and were labeled as remorseless sophistry after committing a crime and a waste of judicial resources It is difficult not to pronounce a heavy sentence.
He specified that it depends on the final flow of money whether receiving fraudulently the assistant’s fees constitutes a bribery crime: if it is used for private purposes such as paying mortgages, car loans, washing hair and grocery shopping, it will be a offense with “illegality” possession”; official or related business, you can get out unscathed.
For example, Zhang Zhaoliang, a former Taoyuan city councilor who returned this year to run for the Democratic Progressive Party, was accused of underestimating and overpaying more than 10.48 million yuan monthly salary of civil servants during his tenure. He was suspected of corruption. and false documents. The assistant spent 12.14 million yuan, which exceeded the overpaid assistant fee. It was determined that he didn’t line his pockets. In 2020, he will be acquitted of the bribery side. He will only be sentenced to 2 years and October for 8 crimes of forgery.
People from the legal circle pointed out that due to factors such as the upcoming general election and the mid-term Legislative Yuan, the delay in starting the search and summons action does not mean that there are no other investigations underway, because the Il The case was initially reported by an insider, and the case involved, in addition to the incumbent legislator and county mayoral candidate Gao Hongan, also involves other legislators from the People’s Party and the Yongling Foundation. After the election, it is expected to continue to receive attention .
Original url of Lin Media:News Analysis / The collar assistant fraud case is super competitive with the prosecutor’s claim that “Gao Hongan can’t escape”
