Kaohsiung City Council Speaker, Tseng Li-yen (曾麗燕), is currently being investigated for embezzlement of over NT$13 million.
The Speaker, and member of the KMT, has been on the council since 2010, serving 3 terms. In 2020, she was elected to her role as Speaker. She, along with her sister Tseng Li-hong (曾麗鴻) and at least 11 other alleged coconspirators, are being charged with embezzlement.
The group is accused of fraudulently listing assistants and their fees as a way of skimming extra money off. According to the charges they would either claim assistants that they didn’t actually have, or would inflate real assistants’ salaries and claim the excess money for themselves, including subsidies and bonuses. The amount of money they allegedly stole could be as high as NT$13.3 million (US$477,736).
Tseng made a statement saying that she has always tried to do her best to serve the city and denied any wrongdoing.
Now that the group has been indicted, only time will tell whether or not they are guilty of the crimes of which they are accused.