Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂), former head of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, was indicted yesterday for withholding information about former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) possible involvement in money laundering.
Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Lin Chin-chun (林錦村) said prosecutors were seeking a jail term of two years and six months for Yeh.
Lin said Yeh, who stepped down from his post as bureau chief on July 16, withheld information about overseas bank accounts in the names of Chen’s family members.
Lin said Yeh was supposed to relay the information — which the bureau’s Anti-Money Laundering Center obtained on Jan. 27 from the international anti-money laundering Egmont Group — to the Supreme Prosecutor Office.
But the Supreme Prosecutor Office never received the information, Lin said.
The director of the Anti-Money Laundering Center asked Yeh about the information in March and was told that Yeh would give it to Prosecutor-General Chen Tsung-ming (陳聰明) in person, Lin said, but the prosecutor-general said that he had never received the information.
Yeh later said he had forgotten to pass on the information to Chen Tsung-min because the country was in the middle of a fiercely contested presidential election and he stepped down two months after the new administration took office on May 20.
Lin said a search of Yeh’s home in Muzha (木柵), Taipei City, last week yielded a photocopy of the information from Egmont, but not the original document.
“The fact that Yeh was careful to keep a photocopy of the information disproves his claim that he completely forgot about the whole matter,” Lin said.
Late last month, two Swiss prosecutors asked Taiwanese authorities for help investigating a case of suspected money laundering, with US$21 million reportedly placed in Swiss bank accounts in the name of Chen Shui-bian’s daughter-in-law.
Lin said it was not the first time that Yeh, who was appointed in 2001 by Chen Shui-bian to head the bureau, had withheld information about the former first family.
In 2006, the bureau failed to pass on to prosecutors information it had obtained about possible money laundering by first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), Lin said.
Lin said Yeh maintained that he had conveyed the information in 2006 to then prosecutor-general Wu Ying-chao (吳英昭), a claim Wu has rebutted.
In related news, Chen Shui-bian’s office yesterday criticized the judiciary for leaking details of the case and expressed regret over media reports that the office said distorted the facts.
In a statement, the office expressed displeasure with leaks of what had been said by witnesses in interviews and suggested that prosecutors might have deliberately leaked the information to reporters.
“We would like to call on the public to stop and condemn such an act,” the statement said.
The office also criticized media outlets that they said had drawn false conclusions and distorted the testimony of witnesses.
The statement followed a report in yesterday’s Chinese-language China Times that said the testimony given by former Presidential Office treasurer Chen Cheng-hui (陳鎮慧) was detrimental to Chen Shui-bian’s case and contradicted his statements.
The office dismissed the report, saying that Chen Cheng-hui knew nothing about the campaign funds in question because as the treasurer at the campaign headquarters for the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, she was only in charge of the headquarters’ finances.
The money Chen Cheng-hui handled was declared in full and there were no leftover funds, the statement said. In addition, prosecutors had not asked Chen Cheng-hui about the leftover campaign funds Chen Shui-bian’s wife wired overseas, the statement said.
The statement also rebutted reports that witnesses had told prosecutors that Chen Shui-bian contributed NT$40 million to former premier Frank Hsieh’s (謝長廷) Taipei mayoral campaign and NT$20 million to former premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) campaign for Taipei County commissioner. The issue was mentioned by prosecutors, but not confirmed by witnesses, the statement said.
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
WARNING: People in coastal areas need to beware of heavy swells and strong winds, and those in mountainous areas should brace for heavy rain, the CWA said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued sea and land warnings for Typhoon Ragasa, forecasting that it would continue to intensify and affect the nation the most today and tomorrow. People in Hualien and Taitung counties, and mountainous areas in Yilan and Pingtung counties, should brace for damage caused by extremely heavy rain brought by the typhoon’s outer rim, as it was upgraded to a super typhoon yesterday morning, the CWA said. As of 5:30pm yesterday, the storm’s center was about 630km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving northwest at 21kph, and its maximum wind speed had reached
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said that it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Ragasa this morning and a land warning at night as it approached Taiwan. Ragasa intensified from a tropical storm into a typhoon at 8am yesterday, the CWA said, adding that at 2pm, it was about 1,110km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13kph, with sustained winds of up to 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA Web site showed. Forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said that Ragasa was projected to strengthen as it neared the Bashi Channel, with its 200km
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hualien and Taitung counties declared today a typhoon day, while schools and offices in parts of Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties are also to close Typhoon Ragasa was forecast to hit its peak strength and come closest to Taiwan from yesterday afternoon through today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Taiwan proper could be out of the typhoon’s radius by midday and the sea warning might be lifted tonight, it added. CWA senior weather specialist Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said that Ragasa’s radius had reached the Hengchun Peninsula by 11am yesterday and was expected to hit Taitung County and Kaohsiung by yesterday evening. Ragasa was forecast to move to Taiwan’s southern offshore areas last night and to its southwestern offshore areas early today, she added. As of 8pm last night,
RSS