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Taiwan `in the dark' on Wang deportation case

With fugitive Rebar group chairman Wang You-theng (王又曾) expected to face his first substantive hearing on his immigration status this week, Taiwanese officials in Washington complain that they have been kept in the dark by US authorities about the case.

They say that Taipei Economic and Cultural Office officials in Los Angeles have found it impossible to gain access to information about the case, or even when the hearing will be held.

However, one official said that they hope to "have something new in the next 24 to 48 hours," but did not elaborate.

Taiwanese officials had expected the hearing to be held today, but a senior official of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in Washington said that the time was "not for sure" and that reports had been conflicting.

Taiwanese envoys had been planning to take an active part in the proceedings, in an effort to get Wang deported so he can face charges of embezzlement of billions of dollars of Rebar assets that left the company bankrupt.

The Ministry of Justice sent large volumes of documents and other information to the US Justice Department about Wang's alleged illegal activities after he fled to China earlier this year.

From China Wang entered the US on a B1 temporary work visa.

Ministry officials, however, were unable to convince US law enforcement agencies to deport Wang. at that time.

Early last month, Wang and his wife, Wang Chin She-ying (王金世英), tried to travel to Myanmar via Singapore. At Taiwan's request, Singaporean authorities stopped the couple, who were in transit at the airport, and sent the couple back to Los Angeles. By that time, Taiwan had revoked Wang's passport, thereby invalidating his six-month US visa, and he was detained upon arrival in Los Angeles.

He is being held in the San Pedro detention center south of Los Angeles, and US justice officials have started what is called a "removal proceedings," or deportation case.

Wang's wife, who also holds US citizenship, was allowed to enter the country.

At Wang's first appearance at an immigration court in the detention center on Feb. 13, his attorney, Franklin Nelson, persuaded immigration judge Rose Peters to issue a gag order, preventing anybody involved in the case from making any information public.

Since then, Taiwanese envoys in Washington and Los Angeles have had no success in gaining information about the case, a senior TECRO official told the Taipei Times.

"We will just have to keep our ears open, our eyes open, everything open," to find out how the case against Wang is progressing, one official said.
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