Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Shao-ting Implicated in Assistant Fee Fraud, 4 Nominal Assistants Plead Guilty and Receive Suspended Sentences

Central News Agency

(Central News Agency reporter Hung Hsueh-chen, Kaohsiung, 28th) Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Shao-ting, a member of the Kuomintang, is involved in a case of alleged fraud involving assistant fees. Four nominal assistants were indicted as co-conspirators in corruption for cooperating by providing their bank accounts to the service office for falsely reporting salaries. The Kaohsiung District Court, considering that all four were passively involved and pleaded guilty, sentenced them to 1 year to 1 year and 9 months, all with suspended sentences.

The Kaohsiung District Court's judgment pointed out that Ms. Wu and the other three individuals were reported as public assistants during Huang Shao-ting's second and third terms as Kaohsiung City Councilor. The four knew that public assistant salaries were directly disbursed by the council, yet they still followed the instructions of Huang Shao-ting and the service office staff, handing over their personal bank passbooks and seals, and signing employment contracts and basic information forms with blank salary fields.

Huang Shao-ting's service office created false documents to report inflated assistant salaries to the Kaohsiung City Council, causing the council to disburse the monthly inflated salaries and Lunar New Year慰勞金 into the four individuals' accounts. The service office staff then withdrew the money, which was then controlled by Huang Shao-ting. Among them, Ms. Wu, due to inflated salaries, caused the council to deduct income tax monthly, which led to a tax refund mechanism, defrauding a total of NT$39,067 in tax refunds. The other three did not obtain any criminal proceeds.

During the trial at the Kaohsiung District Court, all four defendants confessed to their crimes. The judge believed that although the four did not have civil servant status, they still constituted a co-principal in the crime of civil servants taking advantage of their positions to defraud property, along with Huang Shao-ting. Compared to Huang Shao-ting, who led the entire case, the four were all passively involved, and apart from Ms. Wu, the other three did not receive any money. Ms. Wu also fully returned the criminal proceeds during the court's deliberation.

The judge considered that the maliciousness and criminal circumstances of the four were not serious. Based on this, Ms. Wu was sentenced to 1 year and 9 months imprisonment for corruption and other charges, with a 4-year suspended sentence, and must pay NT$50,000 to the public treasury. Assistant Hung and Assistant Wang were each sentenced to 1 year imprisonment, with a 3-year suspended sentence, and must each pay NT$30,000 to the public treasury. Another female assistant surnamed Wang was involved in two crimes across different terms, and was sentenced to 1 year and 2 months imprisonment, with a 3-year suspended sentence, and must pay NT$40,000 to the public treasury.

In addition, all four were deprived of public rights for 2 years and must undergo probation and legal education courses during their suspended sentence period. The entire case can still be appealed. (Editor: Chang Ming-kun) 1150428

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