New Party Taipei City Councilor Pan Hwai-tzong (???) was handed a two-year prison sentence suspended for five years and a five-year suspension of civil rights by the Taiwan Shilin District Court Wednesday for embezzling NT$3.3 million in public funds between 2008 and 2020.

According to the court, Pan admitted to funneling government funds allocated to pay assistants’ salaries and utility bills through figurehead accounts belonging to relatives of his office chief Chen Yu-tai (???), and he said he used the money to serve his constituents.

Elected councilors in the six special municipalities can hire up to eight assistants to help in policy research and serve the locals.

However, the court said in a statement that it had decided to suspend Pan’s sentence on health grounds, as well as the five-term city councilor’s promise to pay back NT$500,000 (US$16,670) in restitution.

Pan was released after posting bail of NT$2 million in January 2021, before prosecutors formally indicted him on charges of violating the Anti-Corruption Act later that year.

Also on Wednesday, the court handed Pan’s office manager Chen a two-year prison sentence suspended for five years and a five-year suspension of civil rights, and ordered him to pay NT$350,000 in restitution.

Four others indicted in the case, all former office assistants of Pan’s, were also handed suspended sentences and ordered to pay between NT$50,000 and NT$150,000 in restitution.

The case can be appealed.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel