Prosecutors dismiss claims of `hidden information'

The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office yesterday dismissed local media reports claiming that prosecutors had deliberately concealed information about Chao Chien-ming's (趙建銘) indictment to protect the first family.

"There was no `sheltering' of the first family," Taipei District Prosecutors' Office spokesman Lin Pang-liang (林邦樑) told a press conference yesterday.

Lin made the remarks in response to media reports that said prosecutors did not give any details of a large sum of money transferred by Chao, President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) son-in-law, to his wife Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤).

During Chao's indictment on Monday, prosecutors listed a number of deposits transferred to and from Chao's bank accounts.

Prosecutors said that for one of the tranfers Chao had asked a treasurer at the Presidential Office, Chen Cheng-hwei (陳鎮慧), to help him move NT$2 million (US$61,600) into another account last year, but they did not give the name of the account holder.

Chinese-language newspapers such as the United Daily News and the China Times yesterday reported the NT$2 million sum was a deposit Chao transferred to his wife's bank account. The papers claimed the prosecutors had purposely hidden the details about this deposit.

The reports said prosecutors wanted to protect the first family's image.

"The NT$2 million was indeed a deposit Chao transferred to his wife Chen. But because it was unrelated to the scandals under investigation, prosecutors did not have to include it in the indictment," Lin said.

Chao Chien-ming and his father, Chao Yu-chu (趙玉柱), were indicted on insider-trading charges in connection with the Taiwan Development Corp and other scandals.

Taipei prosecutors have recommended an eight-year sentence for Chao Chieh-ming and a 10-year term for his father.

They also asked that each man be fined NT$30 million.

Chao Chien-ming was released on NT$10 million bail on Monday.