Taipei: The Taiwan High Court Taichung Branch on Thursday rejected an appeal by Kuomintang (KMT) lawmaker Yen Kuan-heng, upholding his prison sentence of eight years and four months for corruption and related crimes. The court stated that the corruption conviction can still be appealed to Taiwan’s Supreme Court, so Yen’s seat in the Legislative Yuan remains unaffected for now.
According to Focus Taiwan, prosecutors accused Yen of using a sham house transaction with a design company to conceal the illegal occupation of state-owned land in Taichung’s Shalu District. Yen and construction company head Lin Chin-fu allegedly arranged a NT$45.41 million (US$1.5 million) “loan” to design company head Chang Yu-ting, who then used the funds to purchase the property.
Prosecutors further alleged that Yen employed Lin as a proxy to unlawfully collect NT$1.08 million in Legislative Yuan staff salaries. Account records, including a “Yen collection and payment summary,” were cited as key evidence of a violation of Taiwan’s Anti-Corruption Act.
In July 2024, the Taichung District Court convicted Yen of corruption, imposing a sentence of seven years and 10 months in prison and stripping him of civil rights for three years, along with an additional six-month term for document forgery, which is convertible to a fine. However, the court acquitted Yen of unauthorized occupation of publicly-owned land.
The Taiwan High Court Taichung Branch upheld these findings, declaring the forgery and land encroachment rulings final and restricting Yen and Lin from leaving Taiwan for eight months. Outside the courthouse, Yen expressed his discontent, labeling the verdict as “judicial persecution” and contending that the assistant duties and salary disbursements were under Lin Chin-fu’s control. Regarding the house sale, Yen maintained it was “a real transaction without any falsehood, and all money flows were presented.”
