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Woman sentenced to three years for extortion of Koo

The Taiwan High Court yesterday sentenced a woman to three years in prison on charges of extortion and intimidation against the late Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫).

Chang Yi-hua (張怡華) was previously sentenced to two and half years by the Shilin District Court on the same charges and yesterday's increased sentence was the result of her failed appeal to the High Court.

The court ruling noted that Chang, in collaboration with her mother Teng Hsiang-mei (鄧香妹), extorted more than NT$200 million (US$6.17 million) from Koo and his family between 1994 and 2004 by claiming that she was Koo's illegitimate daughter and threatening to expose him.

Koo was a business tycoon who led the Koo Group of companies from 1940 until his death in January 2005. He also chaired the SEF -- a semi-official organization set up to handle technical and business matters with China in the absence of diplomatic relations.

Teng and Chang went public with their claims in 2005 when Koo's family refused to make any more payments after his death at age 89.

According to Teng, she first met Koo in 1964 when he was 48 and she was 23, and the two had a relationship until Koo's death. Three years after Koo and Teng met, she had Chang, who is now 41, she said.

Teng had been sentenced to five years by the District Court. Her High Court appeal was suspended because she provided a medical diagnosis showing that she suffers from chronic depression and suicidal tendencies. The court has ordered further psychological evaluations of Teng before resuming proceedings.

Teng and Chang were both indicted last year after DNA tests failed to establish any kinship between Chang and Koo.
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