Keelung City Councilor and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative candidate Chang Ping-chun (張秉鈞) and his parents were on Wednesday detained on suspicion of embezzling public funds.
Chang, 42, his father, who is a former Keelung City councilor, and his mother were on Tuesday summoned by authorities as part of an investigation into whether the father and son had funneled government funds for assistants’ salaries into accounts under their control.
In Keelung, city councilors are allocated NT$80,000 in government funds each month to pay the salaries of their assistants, on condition that they be paid above the minimum monthly wage of NT$26,400.
Photo: Taipei Times
Police searched Chang’s home and office, before turning him and his parents over to the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office, where they were questioned into the night.
The Keelung District Court on Wednesday evening approved a request by prosecutors to detain the trio, due to the severity of the allegations and the risk of collusion.
Bail for three other suspects in the case was set at NT$10,000, NT$30,000 and NT$200,000.
Chang Ping-chun was in 2018 elected to replace his father, four-term Keelung City councilor Chang Chin-huang (張錦煌), and won a second term last year.
He declared his candidacy for Keelung’s sole legislative seat after incumbent DPP Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) in March said that he would not seek re-election.
Chang was formally nominated by the DPP on May 10, after defeating two other candidates in the party’s internal polling.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the DPP said it respected the judicial process and would convene a working group under its electoral strategy committee to discuss how the situation should be handled.
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