A number of politicians and government officials are under criminal investigation or have recently had their convictions upheld.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Penghu County Councilor Ou Chung-kai (歐中慨) and his wife, Yen Mei-chen (顏美珍), were detained late on Thursday night on suspicion of stealing state funds intended for office assistant wages.
After questioning Ou, Yen and an office assistant about alleged accounting discrepancies, Penghu prosecutors denied the couple bail.
Ou and Yen are likely to face corruption charges under the Anti-Corruption Act (貪汙治罪條例).
A search was conducted in March after the probe was first launched. At the time, Ou and Yen were released on bail of NT$1 million and NT$800,000 (US$32,602 and US$26,082) respectively.
Prosecutors summoned them on Thursday after finding new information.
In another case, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal by former Taoyuan county deputy commissioner Yeh Shi-wen (葉世文) and upheld his previous conviction involving three counts of corruption and fraud.
He was found guilty of stealing state funds during his time as head of the central government’s Construction and Planning Agency, and later as Taoyuan deputy commissioner.
It is the final verdict in the case. He has been sentenced to eight years and six months in prison, and been deprived of his civil rights for four years.
Yeh is already serving a 14-year sentence for separate corruption and bribery charges, relating to Farglory Land Development Co chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄) bribing officials, including Yeh, to secure contracts for three housing construction projects in Taoyuan.
Meanwhile, former Pingtung mayor Lin Hsieh-sung (林協松) of the KMT on Thursday had a guilty conviction for corruption and personal profiteering upheld by the Kaohsiung branch of the High Court, but his seven-year sentence was reduced by two months.
It is the second ruling in the case.
In the same case, the court upheld KMT Pingtung City Council Speaker Hsiao Kuo-liang’s (蕭國亮) previous conviction, but maintained his sentence of four years and two months.
Investigators said that Lin and Hsiao had colluded with a contractor to siphon money from procurement programs, allegedly appropriating NT$2.37 million over three years, and that they had found evidence that the two had illegally transferred public funds to their personal accounts.
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