FIRST TIME: A former TPP spokeswoman with Chinese contacts is in detention on suspicion of taking cryptocurrency and foreign cash, and leaking intelligence

• By Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Ma Chih-wei (馬治薇), a former spokeswoman for the Taiwan People’s Party’s (TPP) Taoyuan chapter, yesterday became the first candidate in Taiwan’s history to be investigated and detained for allegedly receiving cryptocurrency from China as election funding.

Ma, an independent, is also the first legislative candidate to be put under pretrial detention in this election cycle, with only seven days to go before the vote on Saturday next week.

Ma, who visited China several times last year, allegedly received tether cryptocurrency in addition to US dollars for her campaign.

She is also accused of passing information about intelligence officials and classified material pertaining to her legislative race in Taoyuan to Chinese contacts, Taoyuan Prosecutors’ Office official Kao Chien-yu (高健祐) said in a court filing yesterday.

Ma, 40, was seen as a rising star in the TPP when she became spokeswoman for the Taoyuan chapter. In April last year, she registered to represent the city’s first electoral district.

However, TPP members reported to party executives that Ma had close ties to the pro-Beijing China Unification Promotion Party founded by former Bamboo Union leader Chang An-lo (張安樂) and had made numerous trips to China.

The party did not nominate her, but she remained in the race as an independent.

After receiving tip-offs last year, Taoyuan prosecutors and the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau launched an investigation and searched four locations in Taoyuan on Thursday.

They questioned eight people, including Ma and TPP Taoyuan chapter head Huang Cheng-chun (黃成峻).

Prosecutors yesterday said that there is sufficient evidence that Ma contravened national security laws and the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法).

A judge approved a request to detain her due to the likelihood she would flee, collude with others or tamper with evidence.

The bureau’s national security section said that it is a serious case of Chinese Communist Party election interference through candidate funding.

Bureau officers and investigators are implementing measures to prevent and monitor foreign forces attempting to undermine the election process, it said.

Kao said travel records showed Ma traveled to China numerous times in April and May last year as she sought the TPP nomination in Taoyuan.

Evidence indicated that in separate meetings with her Chinese contacts she received a total of US$15,000 in cash, Kao said, adding that from October to last month she visited China again several times, allegedly to facilitate three separate transfers of tether valued at US$8,306, US$1,106 and US$9,910.

The bureau said using cryptocurrency is a new preferred method, as it is difficult to trace.

China is now using multiple channels, including US dollars, cryptocurrencies and unregulated cash transfers, to directly fund some legislative candidates in Taiwan, the bureau said.

Although running as an independent, TPP members including former party delegate Wu Yu-ching (吳予晴) said that Ma still has close ties to party leaders, citing her social media posts highlighting recent photographs taken with TPP Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), and former TPP legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡璧如).