Kuomintang New Taipei lawmaker Lian Feifan detained for being involved in fraudulent claims of assistant fees

KMT New Taipei City Councilor Lian Feifan (right in the picture). (Photo by reporter Wang Dingchuan)

New Taipei City Councilor Lian Feifan of the Kuomintang for six consecutive years was accused of using heads to fraudulently obtain assistant fees, amounting to at least one million yuan. The New Taipei District Prosecutor's Office yesterday directed the Independent Commission Against Corruption to launch a search in multiple directions and interviewed Lian Feifan, Lian's husband and office director Cai Dingda, head assistants, etc., and the whole case was reported to be corrupt. After being investigated for crimes such as "taking advantage of one's position to defraud property" and criminal forgery of documents, the prosecutors detained Lian and Cai for two months after interrogation overnight. The court convened a detention court at 2:30 p.m., interrogated until about 5 p.m., and ruled that Lian Feifan and his wife should be detained for two months.

The prosecutor yesterday directed the Independent Commission Against Corruption to use the search ticket issued by the court to conduct searches at 17 locations including Lien's residence, the parliamentary hall, and the service office, and notified Lien and Cai, a total of 24 people, to report to the case. It is understood that Lian Feifan and Cai Dingda have been suspected of using heads of people to fraudulently obtain assistant fees many years ago; the actual amount she was involved in fraudulently obtaining, whether it was used for personal use or used to hire personal assistants, and whether the assistants actually engaged in related work, remains to be clarified and investigated by the integrity inspection unit.

After interrogation by prosecutors, Lien and Cai were found guilty of taking advantage of their positions to defraud property, the criminal law of causing public servants to publish false official documents, the money laundering prevention law, the tax collection law, the commercial accounting law, etc. The crime suspicions are serious and the corruption involved If the crime of corruption is a felony with a minimum sentence of five years or more, and there are facts and sufficient reasons to believe that there is a risk of escape, annihilation, forgery, or alteration of evidence, or collusion with accomplices or witnesses, and there is a reason and necessity for detention, apply to the court for prohibition of detention. After being interrogated by the prosecutor, the remaining 15 defendants were ordered to be bailed in amounts ranging from 10,000 yuan to 1 million yuan. The remaining defendants were asked to return after the interrogation.

Lian Feifan was born in the education field. She was a teacher at Xiulang Elementary School and Zhonghe Elementary School. She has been deeply involved in the local area for many years. After entering the political arena, she started as a citizen representative at the grassroots level. She served as a citizen representative in Yonghe City, Taipei County for 4 terms. She also served as a Taipei County Councilor for two terms. After Bei County was promoted to New Taipei City, she served as a member of the 1st to 4th term. During this period, she served as the Secretary-General of the Kuomintang League of the New Taipei City Council. She is still a member and has rich grassroots organizational strength. However, she stated at the end of last year that she would not run for re-election.

Cai Dingda (pictured right) is the husband and office director of KMT New Taipei City Councilor Lian Feifan. (Photo by reporter Wang Dingchuan)