TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Media personality Wu Tzu-chia (吳子嘉) faces charges of aggravated defamation after he alleged that a former premier and former health minister made illegal profits from COVID-19 vaccines.

Wu was fined NT$3 million (US$93,835) last month following a lawsuit brought by former Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中). The chair of the My Formosa online news site had alleged that Chen had pocketed US$100 million from a BioNTech vaccine contract during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Taipei District Prosecutors Office said Thursday it was charging Wu with aggravated defamation for his comments directed at Chen and at then-Premier Su Chen-chang (蘇貞昌). The media personality made the allegations on his YouTube channel in August and September 2022, and on a live TV show in May 2023, per the Liberty Times.

Prosecutors accused Wu of not having checked his facts, and relying only on one source to make the allegations against Su and Chen. 

His single source was the Taiwan representative of a pharmaceutical company from Shanghai, who had relied on hearsay from one other person, according to prosecutors.