Tong Zhongyan, a former North City councillor, was accused of fraudulently receiving more than 120,000 yuan in assistant fees during his tenure as a councillor. The second instance found that only more than 50,000 yuan was fraudulently received, and the sentence was changed to 3 years and October. The Supreme Court today dismissed the appeal, and Tong Zhongyan was sentenced to three years in October and must be imprisoned.
Tong Zhongyan was accused of hiring a man surnamed Cai as an assistant under the pretense of NT$30,000 per month in October 100, and applying to the Taipei City Council for subsidies for self-employment of public assistants; but in fact, Tong Zhongyan did not hire Cai. The surname is a man, and he defrauded a public assistant subsidy of NT$123,842. The Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office indicted Tong Zhongyan under the Corruption Offenses Ordinance.
In the first instance, the Taipei District Court sentenced Tong Zhongyan to 7 years and 6 months in prison and 4 years of deprivation of public power in accordance with the Corruption Regulations, and sentenced Tong Zhongyan to 5 months in prison for forgery and a fine.
The case was appealed, and the second instance was accepted by the Taiwan High Court. During the trial, Tong Zhongyan said, “I definitely did not embezzle a dime.” He did hire a man named Cai as an assistant. Cai Nan agreed with his political philosophy and was willing to donate his salary to the legislator. The service is used, and the money is really used for the official business of the members. Tong Zhongyan was later sentenced to May for the crime of forging documents, and the appeal was withdrawn.
The second trial found that the man surnamed Cai did not work as an assistant, but Tong Zhongyan hired a female assistant surnamed Chen at his own expense for 4 months with a monthly salary of 18,000 yuan, totaling 72,000 yuan. After deducting 72,000 yuan, Tong Zhongyan’s actual fraudulent claim amount was 51,842 yuan.
According to the second-instance trial, if the illegal benefit of the Corruption Regulations is less than 50,000 yuan, the sentence can be commuted. Tong Zhongyan’s illegal benefit is only a little more than 50,000 yuan. The crime of defrauding property by taking advantage of his position shall be sentenced to 3 years and 10 months and deprived of public power for 2 years.
Tong Zhongyan appealed once morest the second-instance judgment. The Supreme Court held that the second-instance judgment did not violate the law. Today, Tong Zhongyan’s appeal was dismissed, and the whole case was decided.
Responsible editor: Yu Weining
