Former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) pleaded guilty to forgery and two of three counts of money-laundering yesterday but not guilty to the other charges against her.
She admitted using fake receipts to gain reimbursements from the presidential “state affairs” fund, but denied embezzling money from the fund and other charges of taking bribes in connection with a land deal and a government construction project.
Wu was first indicted along with three of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) former aides on Nov. 3, 2006, for siphoning off NT$14.8 million (US$439,000) from the fund.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The prosecutors brought additional charges of corruption and money-laundering against her, her husband, their son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), his wife Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚), three aides and seven others on Dec. 12.
Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) had scheduled the hearing to clarify witness statements and evidence and to schedule trial dates with the defendants and prosecutors in the money-laundering case, which includes charges related to the "state affairs" fund, a 2003 land deal in Lungtan (龍潭), Taoyuan County, and the Nangang Exhibition Center construction project.
Of the three counts of money-laundering, Wu pleaded guilty to those involving the Nangang and Lungtan cases, but not the "state affairs" fund.
The hearing was scheduled to begin at 2:30pm. Wu and her son arrived at the court at 2:20pm.
National Taiwan University Hospital sent two doctors, two nurses and an ambulance to the Taipei District Court as a precaution. Wu’s appearance yesterday was her first at the court since proceedings against her began in December 2006. She fainted during that session and was rushed to hospital.
The judge spent approximately 20 minutes reviewing Wu’s health and making sure that she would be able to handle the planned three-hour hearing.
When asked about the Lungtan case, Wu denied corruption, but admitted receiving NT$200 million from Taiwan Cement Corp (台泥) chairman Leslie Koo (辜成允), which she called a “political donation.”
She said she had no idea why Koo would say that he had wired NT$400 million to her and call it a“commission” connected to the land deal, as prosecutors said he did during questioning on Nov. 24 last year.
Wu asked the judges to help her locate the missing money, referring to the difference between what she admitted receiving and the amount Koo claimed to have wired.
The former first lady admitted receiving US$2.2 million from Nangang Exhibition Center contractor Kuo Chuan-ching (郭銓慶), not US$2.73 million as stated in the indictment.
She did not say whether the US$2.2 million was a bribe as prosecutors allege or a political donation as she has previously suggested.
Kuo told prosecutors that he collected US$2.73 million to bribe the former first family after winning the tender to build the Nangang Exhibition Center.
Wu told the judges that the money she wired overseas came from private family funds, not public funds, and her husband had no knowledge of how she managed the family’s money.
The hearing lasted about two hours and Tsai granted Wu’s request to postpone tomorrow’s scheduled hearing to March 3 and March 5 because her physical condition would not allow her to appear in court two days in a row.
After the hearing, Wu read a statement to reporters outside the court building.
She apologized for implicating “so many innocent people” in the case and causing turmoil.
“I will face the trial and investigation openly and will appear before the court or prosecutors whenever I am summoned, as long as my physical condition allows,” Wu said.
Several of those indicted, including Chen Chih-chung and his wife, have pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges.
Of the 14 defendants, only Chen Shui-bian is still in custody. He is next due in court for a three-day session beginning on Feb. 24.
When asked for comment, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) deputy caucus deputy secretary-general Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) urged Wu to face the charges honestly.
Fellow caucus deputy secretary-general Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said Wu and other members of the former first family owed the public an apology for the money-laundering case.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
Editor's note: This report has been revised to clarify Wu Shu-jen's guilty plea on two of three money-laundering charges.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS