Kuomintang Zhudong mayor candidate Fan Guowei was involved in "group bribery" and three people were released on bail

Fan Guowei, chairman of the Zhudong Town Congress in Hsinchu County and candidate for mayor of the Kuomintang, along with Xiao Wenfu, the vice-chairman who has no party membership and is seeking re-election as town representative, and Chen Fangyu, who is seeking re-election as town representative, are accused of engaging in group bribery through subsidized meals. Fortunately, no actual funding has been allocated. The Hsinchu District Prosecutor's Office launched a search of 13 places yesterday (12th), and after summoning eight witnesses, they were found guilty of violating the Public Employee Election and Removal Law and the Corruption Crime Ordinance by taking advantage of their position to defraud property. They ordered Fan Guowei to post bail of 200,000, Xiao Wenfu to post bail of 100,000, and Chen Fangqi to post bail of 60,000.

The prosecutor stated that yesterday they directed the Haishan Branch of the New Taipei City Government Police Department, Hsinchu County Criminal Investigation Department, Miaoli County Criminal Investigation Department, Chiayi City Criminal Investigation Department and other units to jointly investigate the case. A total of 13 searches were conducted, and 3 people including Fan Guowei, Xiao Wenfu, Chen Fangqi and 8 witnesses were notified to come to the case. 4 mobile phones involved in the case, 3 batches of representative suggestion contact sheets, 1 batch of account books, 1 envelope and other items were seized.

Prosecutors said that Fan Guowei, Xiao Wenfu, and Chen Fangyu sought support by sponsoring an association to hold a publicity event, inviting voters to attend free meals, and promised to subsidize the meals with town office public funds to entertain voting members of the association for free at the beginning of this month. This was suspected of group bribery.

The prosecutor said that the three people raised meal expenses and knew that the Zhudong Town Office civil society subsidies could not be used for election activities unrelated to the purpose of the application and that reimbursement must be verified. However, they still jointly took advantage of their positions to recommend the allocation of subsidies. In the name of "subsidy fees", they recommended the allocation of 10,000 yuan, 20,000 yuan and 10,000 yuan respectively to the association, causing the organizer to make a mistake and send a letter agreeing to allocate funds.

The prosecutor said that fortunately, the association had not submitted the documents for write-off, and the subsidy was not actually disbursed, so the three people did not succeed. After interrogation, the prosecutor found that all three people were suspected of violating the Corruption Crime Act by "attempting to defraud property by taking advantage of their positions." In addition, the election and recall law stipulates that candidates seek unfair benefits for groups in the constituency under the guise of donations, so that the members of the group can perform certain activities. The crimes are serious, but there is no need to detain them. Therefore, the three people were directly ruled to be released on bail pending summons.