Prosecutors in charge of investigating former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) corruption cases said they were looking into other counts of money laundering and corruption, which could soon result in more indictments against the former president.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP), in charge of investigating Chen’s case, said they were still in the process of gathering evidence on cases involving the second financial reform and classified diplomatic projects. They were investigating whether more people may have been involved in helping the former president and his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) launder money, the office said.
Chen is suspected of accepting NT$200 million (US$6.1 million) in bribes related to Yuanta Financial Holding’s (元大金控) merger with Fuhwa Financial Holding Co (復華金控), the nation’s then 11th-largest financial group by assets in April 2007. He is also suspected of accepting another NT$340 million from former Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) vice chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒) in connection with Chinatrust’s failed takeover bid of Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控).
Prosecutors are still investigating other unnamed businesspeople, who are suspected of bribing the former first couple as a form of “protection” during the second financial reform.
While several co-defendants, including Chen’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚), were convicted on Friday for helping Chen Shui-bian launder money to overseas bank accounts, others are still being probed for alleged money laundering activities. These include the former president’s family physician, Huang Fang-yen (黃芳彥), Yuanta Financial Holding Co president Victor Ma (馬維建) and Yuanta Financial Holding Co chief operating officer Michael Ma (馬維辰), all of whom are accused of helping Wu transfer illegal funds overseas.
Huang Fang-yen is suspected of helping the former first family launder money through the purchase of real estate at the Baolai Garden Plaza in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) for NT$60 million and hiding the former first lady’s jewelry and diamonds at his residence.
Prosecutors said they were still tracking NT$220 million.
After the scandal involving the former first family broke, Huang Fang-yen fled the country and is believed to be hiding in the US, where his family lives. He left for the US in November before prosecutors could question him about allegations that he helped Wu launder money.
In the classified diplomatic projects case, prosecutors have listed former deputy foreign minister Michael Kau (高英茂) as a defendant for allegedly helping former National Security Council secretary-general Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) embezzle funds in the guise of diplomatic projects.
Chiou left the Democratic Progressive Party in May last year and retired from politics to shoulder responsibility following a diplomatic scandal in which US$30 million in funds intended for the establishment of diplomatic relations with Papua New Guinea disappeared.
In related developments, the 1,500 pages from Friday’s ruling were delivered on Saturday to the former president at the Taipei Detention Center in Tucheng (土城), where he has been incarcerated since Dec. 30.
He has 10 days to file an appeal with the High Court, where judges may soon hold a detention hearing, as his current term of detention will expire on Sept. 25. He has denied the charges and lambasted the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for what he calls its political vendetta against him.
Meanwhile, police yesterday said they had stepped up security for the three judges who sentenced Chen Shui-bian to life in jail after one of them reported receiving a death threat.
TV footage showed two police officers, one carrying an automatic weapon, guarding the building in which Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) lives.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP
Also See: Ma promises safer towns after Morakot
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
RSS