Investigators in Switzerland have frozen two bank accounts belonging to a Taiwanese arms dealer who was involved in a notorious, corruption-tainted sale of warships to Taiwan, according to a BBC report yesterday.
The accounts are suspected to be linked to a sale of frigates to Taiwan, part of one of France's biggest corruption scandals, the report said.
The accounts, worth US$140 million, belong to Andrew Wang (
The accounts are thought to be related to kickbacks used to secure a French contract to supply Taiwan with warships in the early 1990s.
The report quoted Swiss authorities as saying that they have now blocked several accounts belonging to Wang and his family, both in Switzerland and in neighboring Luxembourg.
According to another report published yesterday in a Swiss newspaper, authorities there were alerted to the accounts after a bank official in Zurich became suspicious as to why Wang's wife and son, Bruno, were moving documents and millions of dollars into several different bank accounts across Switzerland.
Investigators suspect the money comes from a secret commission given to Wang in 1991 after he was instrumental in securing a deal for a French company, Thomson CSF, now called Thales, to build six missile frigates for Taiwan.
Two years later, the body of an officer in the Taiwanese navy, Captain Yin Ching-feng (
Wang, who was Thomson's agent in Taiwan, left Taiwan a few days after the captain's death.
Last September a Taiwanese high court prosecutor issued an order for his arrest on murder charges for Yin's death, but the authorities have been unable to trace him.
The BBC said that the Swiss authorities are also unclear as to Wang's whereabouts.
The Swiss authorities announced yesterday they have now seized up to US$220 million of his assets, which will remain frozen while his case is under consideration.
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