The French firm which produced Lafayette-class warships for the country has filed a lawsuit demanding US$200 million compensation from the navy for the alleged damage inflicted on the company's reputation by allegations of huge kickbacks in the purchase deal, according to a media report yesterday.
"Thomson-CSF [now known as Thales] is demanding around US$200 million from the navy," the Chinese-language United Daily News reported yesterday.
The navy in 2003 filed a suit asking Thales to return US$99 million, claiming that this was the amount the company had received in kickbacks for the purchase of six Lafayette-class frigates from France in 1991.
The report said that because Taiwan's judicial authorities had been unable to prove the kickback claims, and with Thales insisting that there had been no such kickbacks, the company regards the navy's legal action as having seriously damaged its reputation.
"The navy believes that kickbacks were involved in the deal, and it will continue to ask Thales to refund the money through legal channels," military spokesman Rear Admiral Wu Chi-fang (吳季方) said yesterday.
A special prosecutorial panel investigating the high-profile kickback scandal has been scrutinizing a large number of Swiss court files believed to be related to the kickback scandal.
The files were released by the Swiss government in November last year.
The files include information about 46 bank accounts under the names of Andrew Wang (
The files also include details on a number of previously unexposed overseas bank accounts related to the US$2.8 billion Lafayette deal, as well as information about relevant capital flow in Switzerland.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (
Andrew Wang fled the country following the death of navy Captain Yin Ching-feng (
Wang has been charged in absentia with murder, corruption, money laundering and fraud.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
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‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)