Kaohsiung City Councilor Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄) said yesterday that his wife had asked former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) for NT$2.5 billion in financial assistance to bail out their conglomerate three years ago, the Chinese-language media reported.
Prosecutors detained Chu's wife, former legislator Wu Der-mei (吳德美), on Nov. 17 on suspicion that illegal transactions had taken place at one of their companies, Feng An Metal Company (峰安金屬).
Prosecutors suspect that Wu, along with others, was responsible for the funneling of some NT$2 billion in funds between Feng An and other companies they owned between 1997 and 1998.
Investigators suspect the sale was used as a cover to move funds out of Feng An.
Chu, who enjoys immunity as a city councilor, went to the prosecutors on Monday for questioning. He was released early yesterday morning.
Chu said at the city council yesterday that Feng An did not actually receive the NT$2.5 billion bailout funds at the time.
The money was instead used to set up a company jointly owned by Feng An and a third investment company.
The money never actually came into his hands, Chu said.
Chu has previously been charged with a number of financial crimes, including evading NT$350 million in taxes and using dummy companies to inflate the business performance of Feng An in order to get the company listed on the stock market.
Both An Feng Metal and Chu An Steel were involved in repeated multi-million dollar check default scandals in the summer of 1998 which plunged the Pan Asia Bank (泛亞商業銀行) into crisis.
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