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MoJ to give US more on Rebar case

Minister of Justice Morley Shih (施茂林) said yesterday the ministry would provide more evidence of fugitive Rebar Group chairman Wang You-theng (王又曾) and his wife's criminal activities in Taiwan.

Prosecutor Lin Liang-jung (林良蓉), from the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office, was sent to the US earlier this month but did not succeed in persuading US officials to deport Wang and his wife before the beginning of a US court hearing on whether Wang should be allowed to stay in the US.

First bid

Lin left for Los Angeles on Feb. 5 with evidence supporting accusations of Wang's suspected money laundering and embezzlement activities in Taiwan, hoping US officials would agree to deport the white-collar criminal.

Lin spent four days in Los Angeles before returning Taiwan.

A source involved in the prosecution said that because the evidence offered to US officials neither proved that Wang's criminal activities were committed on US territory nor that his real estate investments in the US were made with proceeds from illicit activity, US judicial officials were disinclined to deport Wang.

Shih yesterday told reporters that "prosecutors have cleared the complicated money laundering and embezzlement case and would offer US officials more precise information about the couple's criminal activities through Taiwan-US Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement channels."

Strategy

Su Nan-huan (蘇南桓), a prosecutor at the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors Office's Tainan Branch and a specialist on international money laundering, said that if Taiwanese prosecutors were able to prove that Wang's wife, Wang Chin She-ying (王金世英) -- who is a US citizen -- was involved in the money laundering activities at Rebar and that Wang You-theng was an accomplice in the crimes, US judicial authorities would be more likely to probe the crime.

This, in turn, would be to Taiwan's advantage as the US would then be more inclined to act.

Taiwan put Wang on its most-wanted list in the middle of last month.

Wang, who attempted to fly to Myanmar via Singapore on Jan. 31, was sent back to the US on Feb. 2 by Singaporean authorities because he did not have the proper travel documents.

Wang arrived in Los Angeles on Feb. 3 and was immediately taken into custody by US immigration officials because his Taiwanese and Dominican Republic passports had been invalidated as a result of diplomatic intervention by Taiwanese authorities.

The US court hearing on whether Wang should be allowed to stay in the US is ongoing.
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