Taipei Chief Prosecutor Hsueh Wei-ping (薛維平) yesterday wanted to detain former China Development Holding Corp chairman Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) on charges of embezzlement and money laundering, but the Taipei District Court decided to let Liu go because of a lack of evidence.
Liu, who is president of the Taiwan Research Institute, was first interrogated by special agents from the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation at around 9:30am on Friday. At about 4pm, special agents transferred him to the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office for another interrogation by Hsueh.
PHOTO: LUO PEI-DE, LIBERTY TIMES
By about midnight, Hsueh believed that there was a good chance that Liu would destroy pieces of evidence or exchange information with crucial witnesses and filed a detention request.
The Taipei District Court began to review Hsueh's detention request at around 4am yesterday but finally decided to release Liu without bail at 8:20am.
As he was walking out of the court building, Liu said that he had an agreement with the judges that he would not comment on the case in public.
"I am quite tired now. Please understand that I am not supposed to comment on the case outside the courtroom. I gave the judges my word," Liu said.
Hsueh is currently investigating the disappearance in 1994 of US$4.5 million from a secret fund of US$10.58 million to secure Taiwan's diplomatic relationship with South Africa.
According to his investigation, the National Security Bureau paid the amount to South Africa to secure the diplomatic relationship between two countries on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in May 1994.
On April 4, 1999, the ministry returned a total of US$10.7 million, including interest, to the bureau. The bureau's former chief accountant, Hsu Ping-chiang (
Liu Kuan-chun is wanted for allegedly embezzling more than NT$192 million from the total amount. According to the Bureau of Investigation, Liu left Taiwan on Sept. 3, 2000 and went to Shanghai. He surfaced in Bangkok in January last year and from there went to North America. Sources say that he is now in Canada.
Liu Tai-ying allegedly wired the money to Ruentex Corp Chairman Yin Yen-liang's (尹衍樑) bank accounts in the US and Singapore. Upon receiving the money, Yin allegedly wired it to one of the Ruentex Corp's bank accounts in Taiwan. Then, he "donated" US$3 million of it to the Taiwan Research Institute. However, prosecutors have not yet discovered the whereabouts of the missing US$4.5 million.
Hsu has been detained since July 18. In addition, prosecutors have also interrogated Yin, then-minister of foreign affairs Jason Hu (胡志強) and many other witnesses. According to Hsu's statement, he insisted that he acted on direct orders from former National Security Bureau secretary-general Yin Tsung-wen (殷宗文). The initial order allegedly came directly from former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).
Yin Tsung-wen died of adenocarcinoma, a kind of lung cancer, on March 28 this year.
As a result, whether Lee was involved in or knew of the crime is another mystery which prosecutors are trying to figure out.
Hsueh said that prosecutors may summon Lee if necessary.
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