On Ma's case

The Liberty Times reports on the Supreme Court's verdict on Ma's case, raising a fascinating fact: the court ruled that Ma's special allowance fund as mayor was a public fund, not some sort of special subsidy that could be used as a salary.

But the Court also said, “The prosecutors’ reasons for appeal were not solid. There was insufficient evidence for a guilty verdict. As a result, we decided to uphold the Taiwan High Court’s verdict.”

And, from what I can tell, the reason the appeal was insufficient was that Ma ended up donating the same amount of money he was pocketing, thus meeting the requirement to spend the money on public and not personal expenses.