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Koo quits as Chen’s legal adviser

A farmer works in a field in former president Chen Shui-bian’s hometown of Guantian Township yesterday. When asked about the recent scandal involving offshore bank accounts, the farmer declined to comment. PHOTO: YANG MEI-HONG, TAIPEI TIMES

Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) long-time legal adviser Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday that his working relationship with Chen came to an end last Friday.

“I am very proud to have been on the team that worked for the democratic process during Chen’s eight-year presidency,” Koo said.

Koo made the remarks as he left the Taipei District Court yesterday morning, after attending the final hearing of a case in which he had been defending the former president against slander charges filed by retired Vice Admiral Lei Hsueh-ming (雷學明).

When asked whether his decision to quit had anything to do with the alleged money laundering case involving the former president, Koo said that it would not be appropriate for him to comment on the matter.

Koo immediately left the building after making the remarks.

Also yesterday, the whereabouts of the former president’s son and daughter-in-law remained a mystery after they failed to show up for enrolment at a US university.

Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), who was supposed to attend the three-day compulsory orientation at the University of Virginia School of Law, did not show up yesterday and therefore forfeited his place in the program, school authorities told Taiwanese reporters camped outside the school on Monday.

Chen Chih-chung has two master’s degrees in law: one from the New York University School of Law and the other from the University of California, Berkeley. He had planned to pursue a doctorate degree in law at the University of Virginia this fall.

Chen Chih-chung’s mother-in-law, Wu Li-hua (吳麗華), who returned from the US with Chen Chih-chung’s baby girl Chen Chieh-hsin (陳潔歆) on Sunday, told reporters in New York that her son-in-law would return to Taiwan this week after registering at the University of Virginia. She also confirmed that Chen Chih-chung was in Virginia.

Chen Shui-bian has also said that his son and daughter-in-law should return soon, after prosecutors requested that he ask them to come home to shed some light on the case.

The former president admitted last Thursday that he lied about campaign funds for his two mayoral elections and two presidential elections between 1993 and 2004 and that his wife had wired surplus campaign contributions overseas. Chen Shui-bian’s office later revealed that more than US$20 million had been sent abroad.

Prosecutors have said they believe the former president’s wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), used figureheads, including her husband, brother, son, daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law, to wire money overseas.

Wu Ching-mao (吳景茂), Wu Shu-jen’s brother, admitted to prosecutors during questioning late on Monday that he used jewelry companies as fronts to help the former first lady wire money to foreign bank accounts beginning in 1994, when Chen was Taipei mayor.

The Special Investigation Panel of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on Monday listed Chen Shui-bian, Wu Shu-jen, Wu Ching-mao, Chen Chih-chung and Chen Shui-bian’s daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) as defendants in the case. Chen Shui-bian, Wu Shu-jen and Wu Ching-mao have been barred from leaving the country.

Chen Chih-chung, Huang, Wu Li-hua and Chen Chieh-hsin flew to New York on Aug. 9, five days before the former president made the statements about the overseas funds. Chen Chih-chung and Huang had booked return tickets with EVA Air for Jan. 19 next year and the flights had not been changed or used yet, the Central News Agency reported yesterday.

In related news, former president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday urged the public to be patient and wait for the results of the judicial inquiry into the former president’s case, saying that there was only one truth and that the media should refrain from acting as judges.

Lu also called on the media to give the former president’s daughter, Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤), a break after she was cornered by reporters on Monday.

Chen Hsing-yu called into question the honesty of all politicians, saying she wondered if they ever truthfully declared their political donations or leftover campaign funds.

She also accused DPP members of taking money from her father when they were running for public office but not declaring it. She singled out former premiers Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) as well as Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊).

Lu yesterday said she was distraught when she saw Chen Hsing-yu’s outburst on TV, adding that the media should stop abusing her, as she was under a tremendous amount of pressure.

Lu said she knew nothing about Chen Hsing-yu’s accusation and that it was unnecessary and unfair to further interpret her remarks, which were made under a lot of pressure.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will assist authorities to locate the former president’s son and daughter-in-law once it receives the request from the justice ministry, Spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said yesterday.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU
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