Former People First Party (PFP) lawmaker Liu Sung-fan (
Liu is currently in New York and there is no indication he is planning to returning home.
The former lawmaker, who was Speaker of the Legislative Yuan for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) from 1992 to 1999, is not alone in his voluntary exile -- many politicians and businesspeople facing legal problems have fled the country rather than appear in court or serve time.
Law enforcement personnel are also looking for former independent legislator Wu Tzer-yuan (
The Ministry of Justice, the Bureau of Investigation and the National Police Agency said that their personnel will carry out their orders to locate and arrest these people -- regardless of politics.
Taipei District Prosecutors' Office Spokesman Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達) said that the law mandates that a convicted person is supposed to report to the local prosecutors' office on time to begin his or her jail term or that person will be declared a fugitive. A person can also be declared a fugitive if he or she fails to appear after three summonses and law enforcement officers cannot locate him or her despite three attempts.
"For their families' and their own good, I would suggest these people face whatever responsibilities they have," Chen said.
Liu and Tseng
On Sept. 7, the Taiwan High Court's Taichung branch sentenced Liu to four years in jail for corruption, declaring a final verdict.
Prosecutors said Liu will be declared a fugitive if he fails to report to the prosecutors' office to begin his jail term. However, since Liu's family has yet received the official High Court verdict, the date Liu's jail term is set to begin is not yet known.
Liu was president of the Bank of Taichung -- later renamed the Taichung Business Bank -- from October 1992 to October 1998, when Tseng replaced him.
Taichung prosecutors alleged in 2001 that Tseng had abused his position as bank president in November 1998 to push through loans worth more than NT$9 billion. They said he also kept dummy accounts in six companies to facilitate his illegal transactions.
According to the Sept. 7 verdict, Liu served as a middleman for Tseng in these activities. The court found Liu conspired with the Chihching Co to conceal one of Tseng's dummy accounts. Chihching, which only had NT$2 million in capital, managed to secure a NT$1.5 billion loan from the Taichung Business Bank and Liu received NT$150 million in kickbacks.
On June 8, Tseng was sentenced to 11 years in jail in this case. But he disappeared with his wife on June 14 and is now thought to be living in Shanghai.
Wu Tzer-yuan
The Panchiao District Court convicted Wu on a raft of corruption and fraud charges in 1996 for his involvement, as a then-KMT member and director of the Taiwan Provincial Government's Planning and Development Department, in a kickback scandal over the 1992 Sipiantou (
In 1997, however, the Taiwan High Court upheld a prosecutor's request that Wu be detained.
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