Prosecutors filed a fraud indictment today against Paul Chen, the former head of Taiwan’s representative office in Guam. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office detailed multiple schemes spanning over a decade. Chen served as the first director-general of the reopened Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Guam. The fraud indictment charges him with abusing his official position to obtain property, misappropriating public goods, and falsifying documents.
Between January 2011 and August 2016, Chen worked at a previous posting in Los Angeles. He purchased a personal residence there in January 2011. Regulations required him to declare the property and capped his housing subsidy at US$671 per month. However, he knowingly filed false rental subsidy applications. He claimed monthly subsidies of US$2,123 and later US$2,431. Consequently, prosecutors allege he received US$104,427.61 in excess payments during that period.
Additionally, the fraud indictment covers conduct during his Guam tenure. From November 2020 to April 2022, Chen submitted personal receipts disguised as official procurement documents. He then obtained reimbursements from office start-up and operating expense accounts. The scheme netted US$4,180.76, according to the indictment.
Furthermore, prosecutors accuse Chen of misappropriating government-purchased items. These included an iPhone, a vacuum cleaner, a coffee machine, and an iPad Pro. The combined value of these items reached US$10,476.99. The misappropriation occurred while he directed the Guam office between September 2020 and January 2024.
In a separate scheme, Chen fabricated records of guests attending diplomatic and consular functions. He used these false records to claim US$11,305.62 in reimbursements from December 2020 to January 2024.
Prosecutors also indicted two other officials. Lu Chi-chang, first secretary at the Guam office, and former vice consul Gary Huang face charges of causing false entries in official documents. All three men knowingly failed to conduct physical inventories of state property in 2022 and 2023. Yet Lu completed annual self-inspection forms stating that staff had verified all assets matched records. As a result, the false statements undermined the foreign ministry’s property management system.
Prosecutors charged Chen under the Anti-Corruption Act for fraudulently obtaining property and misappropriating public assets. They also charged him with causing false document entries under the Criminal Code.
The fraud indictment marks a rare public corruption case involving a senior Taiwan representative abroad. It highlights vulnerabilities in oversight of overseas offices. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet commented on the case. Legal proceedings will now proceed against Chen, Lu, and Huang.
