Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Ann Kao/Facebook
HSINCHU MAYOR ANN KAO of the TPP and Taichung legislator Yen Kuan-heng of the KMT were both sentenced on corruption charges last week.
Kao was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison and will be removed from office. No by-election will be held, as Kao has less than two years in office. Instead, Hsinchu deputy mayor Chiu Chen-yuan will take office until the central government appoints a replacement.
Yen Kuan-heng was, on the other hand, sentenced to eight years and four months in prison. Yen will not be removed from office, as legislators are not removed from office on the ruling in the first instance. This will occur, however, if Yen is found guilty on the third ruling.
The KMT has not expelled Yen from the party, citing that this is not a final ruling. It is not probable that the TPP will move to expel Kao either. Instead, as pan-Blue parties, both the TPP and KMT are more likely to double down on defending Yen and Kao. The claim will instead be that the sentencing merely takes place as the result of efforts by the DPP to target political opponents, in line with claims by the KMT that the DPP controls the judiciary. The KMT has recently sought to undermine the authority of the Constitutional Court through legislation aimed at freezing the Constitutional Court, while claiming that an injunction by the Constitutional Court against new legislative powers sought by the KMT legislative caucus is because the DPP controls the Constitutional Court.
The charges faced by Kao and Yen are similar. In particular, both politicians face charges for embezzling public money that would have gone to subsidies to pay legislative assistants, as well as docking the salaries of legislative assistants. Yen is accused of embezzling 1.08 million NT from the fees that would have served as the salary for a legislative assistant between 2018 and 2020, while Kao is accused of embezzling 460,030 NT, in spite of having a monthly salary of 190,000 NT and more than 12 million NT in savings. Several staff members at Kao’s office also face charges for assisting with such embezzlement.
Yen Kuan-heng. Photo credit: Yen Kuan-heng/Facebook
Yen Kuan-heng, however, also faces charges over the illegal acquisition of state-owned land over a mansion owned by Yen on protected land. Yen’s younger brother, Yen Jen-hsien, also faces charges over the illegal acquisition of state-owned land over a different mansion owned by the Yen family. A number of Yen associates also face charges.
Kao will be deprived of civil rights for four years, while Yen will be deprived of civil rights for three years. Both can appeal their sentences, with Kao claiming that the sentence is disproportionate to similar cases in past years.
The Yen family is known as a political family at the intersection of organized crime and religion. Patriarch Yen Ching-piao, a former legislator, heads the Dajia Jenn Lann Temple. The Dajia Jenn Lann Temple is where the Dajia Mazu pilgrimage, the largest religious event in Taiwan, begins. In 2020, Yen Kuan-heng was defeated in the election in an upset. Though he later reclaimed his seat, Taiwanese media has been less hesitant to report on scandals that the Yen family has been implicated in during past years, with Yen coming under fire in 2022 and 2023 over his family mansion.
By contrast, Ann Kao originally entered the TPP because of her close ties with FoxConn founder Terry Gou at a time when the party was courting him. Yet Kao has frequently been implicated in scandals in past years in a manner that may prove a liability for the party.
Charges faced by Kao and Yen take place in a similar timeframe to former Taoyuan mayor Cheng Wen-tsan of the DPP being imprisoned on corruption charges, as well as the indictment of relatives of KMT legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin on money laundering charges, and Hsinchu county magistrate Yang Wen-ke on charges of collusion with a construction company. Clearly, issues of corruption remain deeply rooted at the local level. Nevertheless, as there are more cases reported of corruption facing pan-Blue politicians compared to pan-Green politicians, it is probable that the TPP and KMT will double down on defending politicians within their parties by claiming that this is merely a form of political persecution by the DPP.