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I made up the bit about the love child: extortionist

Teng Hsiang-mei, who claimed she had a child with former Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Koo Chen-fu, yesterday wipes away tears outside her residence in Taipei. PHOTO: WU YUEH-HSIU, TAIPEI TIMES

A woman who claimed she had a love child with former Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) tearfully confessed yesterday that she had lied, and pleaded with the court to give her a lighter sentence.

Teng Hsiang-mei (鄧香妹) and her daughter Chang Yi-hua (張怡華) wept at a press conference they held yesterday, asking Koo's family to "forgive them and don't let them go to prison." Chang said that she was innocent and that for the past 30 years she had believed she was Koo's daughter because her mother had told her she was.

Teng and Chang's lawyer said they would like to return to the Koo family NT$40 million (US$1.21 million) in hush money and two houses Koo had given them -- something they would likely have to do anyway, since the family has filed a civil suit against them to get back the money and property.

Teng and Chang were both indicted last year by prosecutors, after DNA tests failed to establish any kinship between Chang and Koo.

Teng's first confession came after the end of their trial on Monday at the Shilin District Court. During the proceedings, Teng suddenly knelt down in front of the judges and admitted that her daughter was not Koo's.

She told the judges that now she had admitted to the fabrication, she hoped that the court would give her a lighter punishment when they sentence her on Oct. 18.

Prosecutors had said the mother-daughter team were extortionists and asked the court to sentence Teng to five years in jail and her daughter Chang to three years for demanding hush money from the Koo family.

They both were charged under the Law of Obtaining Property by Threats (恐嚇取財罪) because Chang and her mother Teng had threatened and harassed Koo's family.

Teng said that she had received hush money from Koo for years. After Chang was born, Teng said, Koo gave Chang and Teng two apartments and -- since 1994 -- cash payments of NT$205,000 (US$6,100) per month.

The two went public with their claims last year, when his family refused to make any more payments after his death at the age of 89.

According to Teng, 65, she first met Koo in 1964 when he was 48 and she was in her early 20s, and they had a relationship until his death.

Three years after Koo and Teng met, she gave birth to Chang, now 39.
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