A district court in Taipei has ordered the incommunicado detention of Democratic Progressive Party city councilor Chen E-jun, who is under investigation for allegedly fraudulently claiming assistant fees.
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00:00Bogged down by a corruption probe,
00:02Counselor Chen Yijun of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party is being detained and held incommunicado over fraud allegations.
00:10Her release on bail last week, a decision prosecutors appealed and successfully overturned,
00:16bringing her back into custody where she continues to deny the charges lodged against her.
00:21Chen has been accused of fraudulently claiming more than
00:2991,000 U.S. dollars in salaries for assistants, their charges similar to those brought against other politicians.
00:36Kaohsiung Counselor Huang Shaoting of the Kuomintang was in 2024 indicted for falsely reporting the number of assistants
00:42he hired and claiming their salaries from public funds. And more recently,
00:48DPP lawmaker Lin Daihua has also been facing a similar corruption investigation.
00:53Legal analysts say laws need to be amended to prevent legislators from falsely claiming these allowances.
01:11Politicians say there are procedures already in place to prevent this type of fraud.
01:18In 2024, Taiwan's legislature passed a law to increase assistant allowances for city counselors
01:33to prevent lawmakers having to pay their assistants out of pocket.
01:36Now, as corruption probes reveal potential cracks in legislation,
01:41the Taipei City Council says they're stepping up monitoring to tackle fraudulent claims,
01:46patching up any existing loopholes to misappropriate public funds.
01:51Justin Wu and Wesley Lewis for Taiwan Plus.