A former chairwoman suspected of embezzling NT$16 million from state-run radio station Central Broadcasting System (CBS, 中央廣播電台) has skipped bail and fled to the US, local media reported yesterday.
Chu Wan-ching (朱婉清) flew to Los Angeles late Thursday night shortly after posting NT$500,000 bail and agreeing not to leave the country.
But the flight was made in vain. US immigration authorities denied Chu entrance into the US after Taipei prosecutors asked for assistance in apprehending her.
According to local media, Chu will be sent back to Taiwan shortly.
Prosecutors in Taipei said last night they had established "good contacts" with US officials, but declined to provide more details, saying the outcome of the case "all depends on the US side."
Chu reportedly posted bail at around 9:50pm Thursday night. But by 11:55pm she was on an EVA Airways flight with her 16-year-old son bound for Los Angeles.
The Bureau of Immigration did not receive faxed orders to bar Chu from leaving Taiwan until 10:15am yesterday.
Prosecutors said they were shocked by Chu's quick departure. Still, the officiating prosecutor in Chu's case said there were no defects in the handling of her release. "We were following standard procedure," prosecutor Wang Wen-te (王文德) said.
Prosecutors said that in emergency cases they would inform the immigration bureau by phone instead of fax when there are orders to prevent suspects from leaving the country. In Chu's case they decided not to because they did not judge her to be a flight risk.
"Considering her cooperative attitude in the investigation, her social status and the lightness of her charge, it did not occur to us [that she would do so] and so we did not take emergency measures," a spokesman in the Taipei prosecutors' office said.
Chu's husband, Ho Ching-hsien (何景賢), told reporters yesterday that Chu was not fleeing the law, and that Chu had gone to the US to enroll her son in a military school.
"We just received a note from the school that enrollment must be completed by Oct. 14," Ho said.
Chu had been planning to send her son to school in the US after he was injured in a fight in June. Ho said Chu's trip had been planned as early as a week ago.
But EVA Airways said Chu bought her flight tickets at the counter before departure.
Ho claimed that his wife would come back to Taiwan around Oct. 17, adding that she did not know she had been barred from leaving the country.
But the prosecution refuted Ho's claim. Spokesman of the Taipei District Prosecutors 'Office, Chang Wen-cheng (張文政), said Chu had been told she wasn't allowed to leave the country before her release on bail.
A prosecutor noted, however, that Chu's departure did not break the law because the faxed order barring her from traveling overseas did not arrive at the immigration bureau until after Chu left.
Chu was a long-time close aide to Lien Chan (連戰) the former vice president who is now KMT chairman. She was chairwoman of the board of CBS from January 1998 until July this year.
The Black Gold Investigation Center and Taipei District Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into Chu after CBS staff members alleged that Chu had misappropriated NT$16 million in funds.
Prosecutors suspect Chu spent the money on herself and her family.
Chu has denied the charges, telling reporters she was innocent after her release on bail.
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