The Taipei District Court yesterday found former National Security Bureau chief accountant Hsu Ping-chiang (
"If the prosecutor handling the case decides to file for an appeal and take the case to the Taiwan High Court, a second ruling is possible," district court spokesman Huang Jiunn-ming (
Yesterday's verdict received much public attention as several high-profile government officials were involved in the case.
The scandal began with the disappearance in 1994 of US$4.5 million from a secret fund of US$10.58 million for securing diplomatic relations with South Africa. According to prosecutors, the bureau paid the money to South Africa on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in May 1994.
On April 4, 1999, the ministry returned a total of US$10.7 million, including interest, to the bureau. Hsu allegedly asked former chief cashier Liu Kuan-chun (
Liu is himself suspected of embezzling more than NT$192 million (US$5.65 million) from that figure. According to the Bureau of Investigation, he left the country on Sept. 3, 2000, for Shanghai.
He reappeared in Bangkok in January 2002 and then went to North America. Liu is still on the run.
On Nov. 17 last year, the Taipei Prosecutor's Office char-ged Hsu and Liu with corruption and asked the court for a sentence of 15 years for Hsu and 12 years for Liu.
Former China Development Holding Corp chairman Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), who was president of the Taiwan Research Institute at the time, allegedly wired money to Ruentex Corp chairman Yin Yen-liang's (尹衍樑) bank accounts in the US and Singapore. Yin then allegedly wired the money to one of Ruentex's bank accounts in Taiwan, after which he "donated" US$3 million of it to the Taiwan Research Institute.
On April 14, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Hsu went head-to-head during a closed-door hearing at the Taipei District Court over the secret fund.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
AIR ALERT: China’s reservation of airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea could be an attempt to test the US’ response ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, the NSB head said China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said. China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel,
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