To the surprise of Taipei prosecutors and local media, the former chairwoman of the board of the state-run Central Broadcasting System (CBS), Chu Wan-ching (
The move followed 12 hours of questioning by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Los Angeles.
Local media had yesterday reported that Chu was to be deported to Taiwan.
Facing charges of embezzlement, Chu had paid NT$500,000 bail and agreed not to leave Taiwan when she boarded a flight to the US on Thursday.
Chu entered the US with an immigration visa. The US Immigration and Naturalization Service did not find irregularities with her visa that could have denied her entrance. It temporarily seized her passport, however, and asked her to attend a further interview scheduled for Oct. 27 to decide whether she could be granted a US permanent residence permit, or "green card."
Chu is suspected to have embezzled NT$16 million from the CBS. The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office on Thursday night released her on bail after lengthy questioning, and ordered her not to leave the country.
But Chu surprised prosecutors by almost immediately taking an EVA Air flight bound for Los Angeles with her 16-year-old son before the official copy of her injunction had even reached the immigration department at CKS International Airport.
Prosecutors had, via the international affairs division of the police's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), tried to ask the US to cancel Chu's visa and deport her. At the time, prosecutors and police were optimistic but their efforts were in vain.
Chu held a press conference in LA at 7am Taipei time yesterday claiming that nothing about her trip was illegal.
She insisted that she did not know whether the prosecutor had told her that she was barred from leaving the country.
"I cannot say that they did not tell me. But I might have become absent-minded after 10 hours of questioning and only heard that I would be able to leave after I paid the NT$500,000."
"I thought I was free after paying the bail money ... and I just stepped onto the plane like that -- everything was legal," she said, stressing that she was not "jumping bail."
Chu said her hasty departure was made because of her son. She said that she was taking him to attend military school in Pennsylvania.
Chu's son had been injured in a fight in Taipei in June. She said that she had to send him back to the US to prevent further victimization.
Chu's husband on Friday told the media that she would return to Taiwan on Oct. 17. Chu said she was willing to come back, but that she could not do so until Oct. 27 because her passport is now being held by US immigration authorities.
The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office yesterday remained tight-lipped about the matter. Prosecutors will meet tomorrow to decide what measures to take.
Prosecutors had said earlier, however, that Chu's departure might not be regarded as jumping bail unless she fails to attend the hearing when subpoenaed to do so.
In such a scenario, prosecutors said, they did not exclude the possibility of the issuance of an order for Chu's arrest.
A CIB international affairs division officer said that usually in cases of wanted criminal suspects fleeing to the US, Taiwan revokes their passports and the INS denies them entrance and deports them.
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