Former KMT candidate sentenced to 4 years for election interference involving China trips

A former candidate for city council in Chiayi, Lin Xue-feng, has been sentenced to four years in prison for violating Taiwan's anti-infiltration law and election regulations. The court found that Lin, a member of the Kuomintang (KMT) party, organized trips for village chiefs and local figures to mainland China prior to the presidential election. These trips, funded by the Taiwan Affairs Office of Taizhou City in Zhejiang Province, included paid hospitality and aimed to promote KMT presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih.

The Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling, confirming Lin's conviction. He was also stripped of his civil rights for three years and ordered to forfeit illicit gains of NT$9,600 (US$295). The court determined that Lin's actions constituted assistance to China's election interference efforts.

In separate legal developments, the Hualien County government's Social Affairs Department director, Chen Jia-fu, and five other individuals were investigated over allegations of financial impropriety concerning earthquake relief funds. The investigation reportedly relates to the 2018 Hualien earthquake. The Hualien District Prosecutor's Office stated it could not comment due to the ongoing investigation.

Additionally, Hu Yi-chia, founder of the mobile payment service Jkopay, received a seven-year prison sentence for fraud. The Taipei District Court found Hu and Yang Li-wei, son of real estate magnate Yang Jian-yi, conspired to illegally profit over NT$66.65 million (US$2.05 million) by manipulating the sale of a Brent crude oil futures fund managed by Jkopay Asset Management in 2020. Hu was also fined NT$100 million (US$3.08 million) and had illicit gains of NT$35.03 million (US$1.08 million) confiscated.