The Supreme Court rejected an appeal by former Nantou County councilor Tseng Chen-yen (曾振炎) and upheld a lower court’s seven-and-a-half-year sentence for his fraudulent expense claims.
The sentence determined by the High Court’s Taichung branch in Tseng’s second trial was justified, based on solid evidence, the Supreme Court said in the ruling it handed down on Thursday last week, which is final.
Tseng was originally found guilty of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) by the Nantou District Court in 2019 for falsely claiming NT$1.99 million (US$62,207) in public funding from 2014 to 2017 during his time as county councilor.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
He acquired the money to pay the salaries of three aides, but had colluded with his wife, surnamed Hou (侯), to hire their relatives as aides and pocket the money, the district court said. It was found that one aide continued to receive a salary from April to July 2017 after quitting, and remitted the money to Hou.
Tseng received a lighter-than-normal sentence of three-and-a-half years, because he admitted to the crime and used most of the money to support his activities as councilor and pay the expenses of his offices.
The High Court upheld that ruling on appeal, but Tseng and his wife appealed the case again to the Supreme Court. It found gaps in the investigation and inconsistencies in the ruling’s reasoning, and remanded the case to the High Court to be tried again.
In the retrial in May last year, the High Court determined that Tseng’s case did not warrant leniency, because of the long period over which they embezzled money, the large sum involved and the fact that his job was to serve constituents, which could not be used as an excuse to commit fraud.
The High Court increased Tseng’s sentence to seven-and-a-half years and his wife’s from 21 months to 30 months, which were upheld by the Supreme Court.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS