The US may have been influenced by pressure from Taipei in its decision to seize properties in New York and Virginia that had allegedly been bought with bribes paid to the former first family, a Taiwan-born lawyer said.
The US Department of Justice has filed civil forfeiture complaints against former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), based almost entirely on information from President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration and before Taiwanese courts have made a final ruling in the case, said Yang Tai-yu, who now runs a law practice in Iowa.
“There are two ways to look at what has happened, the legal way and the political way,” Yang said.
“This is a civil forfeiture complaint and not a criminal one. The government in Washington does not have to wait for the legal action to be completed in Taipei. These are two different cases,” said Yang, who has made a special study of the case.
“I have read the complaints and the legal documents, and the move by the US government seems hasty. The most the US has to gain is to win these two properties. Even then they will have to give some of the money they get for them back to Taiwan,” he said.
“The US does not have a whole lot to gain financially. This is not a terrorism case [and] there is no national security issue involved. So why would they be in such a hurry to file the case?” he asked.
Yang said it was obvious from the legal documents that the information supporting the US case was provided by Taiwan’s government.
“The question is, why is the Taiwanese government pushing this and why is the US government cooperating with them?” he asked.
“There is nothing for the US government to gain by acting at this point in time. The property is not going anywhere. They could wait until the supreme legal authority in Taiwan makes a decision on it and then move if necessary,” Yang said.
“It is also curious that the US government should choose to cooperate in this way on this case,” he said.
The US government filed its case in the courts on July 14, saying Chen’s property in the US was subject to forfeiture because “it was involved in money laundering and represents the proceeds of a bribery and money laundering scheme.”
A US Department of Justice press release on the case makes Washington’s cooperation with Taipei very clear.
“The Department of Justice and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] worked closely with the Taiwan Supreme Prosecutors Office, Special Investigation Division to gather and exchange evidence regarding the money laundering that took place in this case to support the forfeiture of these funds,” the statement says.
The US investigation, it said, was conducted “in cooperation with prosecutors in Taiwan.”
Asked how the case would proceed from here, the Department of Justice told the Taipei Times: “We will continue with legal proceedings regarding our filings. If we prevail and the properties are declared US government property, they will be sold and the proceeds deposited into the forfeiture fund and then available to share back with Taiwan.”
A department source denied there had been pressure from the Ma administration to bring the civil case against Chen.
“They were very cooperative, but all decisions to proceed were made here without interference from Taipei,” the source said.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
RSS