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.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
RSS