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Fraud suspect's property seized

Taipei prosecutors yesterday seized money and property belonging to Wu Shih-tsai (吳思材), a suspect in the diplomatic fraud scandal, on the grounds that they came from money Wu allegedly embezzled from the government.

Wu was a middleman in the scandal in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) was allegedly defrauded of US$30 million while seeking to forge diplomatic ties with Papua New Guinea in 2006.

Wu was detained by the Taipei District Court on May 6.

Taipei prosecutors seized two luxurious residences in Tianmu (天母) as well as the contents of Wu’s bank accounts, worth a total of about US$4.5 million.

Prosecutors discovered Wu wired US$4.5 million from Singapore to Taiwan in January and used the money to buy the two residences.

Meanwhile, police in Taipei charged Wu yesterday with malicious accusation in connection with a fake death threat.

On May 3, Wu told a press conference that a man with a gun had threatened him after he left his attorney’s office in Taipei, where he had been discussing the fund scandal.

Wu said a man on the road pointed the gun at him and warned him to leave the country soon.

Police said they checked the surveillance cameras in the area Wu mentioned, but did not see anyone threatened him with a pistol.

They said Wu later admitted to fabricating the story because he was concerned about his security and wanted police bodyguards.

The foreign ministry wired US$30 million into an account in Singapore on Sept. 14, 2006, which was to be used as “technical aid” for Papua New Guinea in the hope of forging diplomatic ties.

The scandal came to light on May 1 when a Singaporean newspaper reported that the Singapore High Court had approved Taiwan’s application for an injunction to freeze a bank account held jointly by Wu and Ching Chi-jiu (金紀玖).
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