Prosecutors said after they seized a key document a few days ago, they now had better information about the whole matter. Prosecutors said if any government officials pocketed money from the fund, they would be charged with corruption.
Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) claimed yesterday that the NT$30 million diplomatic fund scandal was the diplomatic mission President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said had been paid from his special allowance fund.
Chiu accused Chen of fabricating the diplomatic mission code named “The South Route Project” in 2006 to cover up his embezzlement of the presidential allowance, and later asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to wire money to the two brokers in the same year to mislead the public to believe in the existence of the project.
Chen has claimed that part of the fund was used to pay secret agents or informants involved in a project, and denied embezzling the fund.
Claiming that the president was behind the Papua New Guinea scandal, Chiu criticized MOFA for wiring the huge amount of money to Ching, who was under investigation over a construction scandal involving Taipower Corporation during the period, without double-checking his background, urging the prosecutors to also investigate other related personnel other than the two brokers.
In related news, the Presidential Office last night denied KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung’s (丁守中) allegation that Ching made political donations to President Chen via former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) in 2000 and 2004.
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