Internet celebrity Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如) was indicted yesterday on charges of fraud and forgery after he allegedly embezzled NT$9.77 million (US$317,393) in public funds by inflating the cost of hosting the 2017 and 2018 WTA Taiwan Open, a professional women’s tennis tournament.
Prosecutors said that Yang used the opportunity presented by holding an international tennis competition to seek personal gain, charging her with defrauding the country’s limited subsidy funds and inflating the cost of hosting the event through false invoices and other documents.
Yang’s conduct also affected the ability of the government to allocate resources to other sports, prosecutors said.
Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei Times
During the investigation, Yang denied wrongdoing, had a bad attitude and claimed that documents had been lost or discarded, prosecutors said, adding that they recommended the courts impose a heavy punishment and confiscate all of the proceeds of her criminal activity.
Her conduct undermined the public-private cooperative model for holding international sports events, prosecutors said.
Is Media Co, for which Yang is a representative and the owner, in 2015 won a bid to host the WTA Taiwan Open, the indictment said.
In September 2015, Yang signed a contract with PCG Bros Sports Management Co, under which each company was required to contribute NT$25 million to host the 2016 event, it said.
However, the costs incurred by PCG Bros to host the 2016 event surpassed the NT$25 million specified in the contract, with the shortfall made up by Is Media, the indictment said.
Concerned that it could lose money hosting the following editions, PCG Bros agreed to let Is Media be the sole organizer, while it served a supplementary role in organizing the 2017 and 2018 tournaments.
Is Media applied to the Taipei Department of Sports and the Ministry of Education’s Sports Administration for subsidies through Taiwan’s national and children’s tennis associations.
In December 2016, Yang signed a memorandum of understanding and a purchase contract with the sports department and the national tennis association to organize the 2017 event in Taipei, the indictment said.
However, Yang allegedly used false invoices issued by two other companies she owned and other falsified documents such as financial statements and balance sheets to inflate the cost of hosting the event and thereby illegally claimed NT$515,523 in subsidies from the city department, it said.
In December 2016, Yang used the same approach to embezzle NT$1.79 million from the Sports Administration, and NT$3.5 million from the Tourism Bureau, prosecutors said.
After Yang secured the rights to host the 2018 WTA Taiwan Open, she again applied to the Taipei Department of Sports, the Sports Administration and the Tourism Bureau for subsidies with fake invoices, making fraudulent claims for NT$305,760, NT$659,839 and NT$3 million respectively, they said.
Yang has been accused by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei city councilors of using her position as a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and connections to senior DPP figures to secure government funding.
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: China continues to build up its military capacity while regularly deploying jets and warships around Taiwan, with the latest balloon spotted on Sunday The US is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of a Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. They would be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, Kyodo reported late on Sunday, citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations. A US Marine Corps regiment that possesses High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — a light multiple rocket launcher — would be deployed along the Nansei Island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said. According to US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations,
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
As Taiwan celebrated its baseball team’s victory in the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier12 on Sunday, how politicians referred to the team in their congratulatory messages reflected the nation’s political divide. Taiwan, competing under the name Chinese Taipei (中華台北隊), made history with its first-ever Premier12 championship after beating Japan 4-0 at the Tokyo Dome. Right after the game, President William Lai (賴清德) congratulated the team via a post on his Facebook page. Besides the players, Lai also lauded the team’s coaching and medical staff, and the fans cheering for them in Tokyo or watching the live broadcast, saying that “every
RSS