TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taiwan High Court on Thursday sentenced a woman who offered government secrets to China in return for election campaign funding to 32 months in prison.

Appeals against the sentence were still possible, per CNA. Ma Chih-wei (馬治薇) received NT$1.05 million (US$34,260) in money and cryptocurrencies from two friends in China to fund her run for a seat in the 2024 legislative elections in Taoyuan, according to prosecutors.

In return, she supplied them with business cards, names, addresses, and telephone numbers of government officials and institutions. A district court ruled Ma had broken the Personal Data Protection Act, but not the Anti-Infiltration Act and the National Security Act, so it sentenced her to eight months in prison.

Both sides filed appeals, leading the case to be handed to the Taiwan High Court and to Thursday’s verdict. The court ruled Ma had also broken the Anti-Infiltration Act, sentencing her to two years and eight months. She could have faced a prison term of up to five years or a maximum fine of NT$10 million.

During the trial, she argued there was no evidence her two friends were intelligence agents, and that the funds they had offered her only helped her pay daily expenses. Though she admitted having used private information, she rejected the allegations of accepting Chinese money to run for the legislature.