Taiwan official pleads guilty; will be deported
The international mess brewing around federal prosecutors in Kansas City charging a Taiwanese envoy with labor fraud appears to have come to an anticlimactic resolution. Hsien-Hsien Liu was charged November 10 for allegedly overworking and underpaying a Filipina housekeeper. The woman only freed herself from Liu’s home after she found a fellow Filipino at a grocery store and asked for help.
Liu had been living in Overland Park while serving as director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Kansas City. Taiwan had claimed that she should not have been charged because she had diplomatic immunity. This morning, Liu pleaded guilty to one charge of fraud and paid $80,000 to the housekeeper and another former domestic employee. Federal officials say that as part of the plea deal, Liu will be sent back to Taiwan instead of prison. The Star reports that both housekeepers have been declared victims of human trafficking and are eligible to stay in the United States.
