Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday urged Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如) to publicly explain subsidies that her company had received from the central and city governments.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month indicted Yang, a former campaign aide to Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), for allegedly hiring people to influence public opinion and attack or deride opponents.
Ko and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City councilors Angela Ying (應曉薇) and Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) on Thursday accused Yang of using duplicate invoices from the 2017 Taiwan Open — which was organized by her company, Is Media (易始) — to receive subsidies from the Taipei City Government in 2018 for items that the central government had already paid for in 2017.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The Taipei Department of Government Ethics on Thursday said in a report that there were abnormal subsidy requests filed by Is Media.
The Taipei City Government said that it would forward the report to prosecutors for further investigation.
Is Media on Friday evening said in a statement it did not use duplicate invoices to ask for subsidies from the city government and the Ministry of Education’s Sports Administration, adding that it organized the tournament legally, according to the regulations.
It added that it might file a defamation lawsuit against Ko, Ying and Wang.
Ko yesterday said that the city government has already given all of the information to prosecutors, but added that the central government has not confirmed the total amount of subsidies it has given the company.
“The easiest way to solve the problem is for Yang Hui-ju to come out and explain the everything in detail,” Ko said. “Stop hiding, come out and explain it to the public.”
Ko said that as he does not expect the central government to publicize details about subsidies it gave the company before the elections on Saturday, the best solution is for Yang to explain everything.
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