Miaoli County Commissioner Fu Hsueh-peng (傅學鵬) was indicted yesterday under charges of misappropriating public funds while he was deputy speaker of the county council.
Former county councilors Luo Hsing-chun (羅幸春) and Hsieh Ching-chuan (謝清泉), as well as the owner of a travel agency were also indicted for issuing fraudulent receipts to cover the misappropriation.
Lin Pang-liang (林邦梁), chief prosecutor at the Miaoli District Prosecutors' Office, said Fu and the two councilors were indicted for making unauthorized pleasure trips to China in 1993 and acquiring NT$390,000 from government funds in the name of "fact-finding trips" to Hong Kong and Japan.
Fu faces a minimum of seven years in prison and a fine of NT$60 million. The late county councilor Hsu Chih-chin (
Fu has denied any knowledge of the misdeed, saying that the trip was arranged entirely by the travel agency and he did not sign any application for the travel expenses.
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