The trial of the former head of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, on charges of withholding information on former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) possible involvement in money-laundering activities, began yesterday.
Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂), who stepped down from his post as bureau chief on July 16, was indicted on Aug. 28 on suspicion of concealing government documents containing a list of overseas bank accounts in the names of Chen family members.
Prosecutors said that Yeh was supposed to relay the information — which the bureau’s Anti-Money Laundering Center obtained on Jan. 27 from the international anti-money laundering Egmont Group — to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, but that the office never received the information.
Prosecutors also accused Yeh of failing to pass on information it had obtained about possible money-laundering by former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) to prosecutors in 2006.
Yeh’s trial at the Taipei District Court took place behind close-doors as it involves national security issues.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Yeh said he told the court he did not break the law because he had handed over those classified documents to Chen and had not concealed any official documents.
Chen’s office has said that the former president had received the two “pieces of intelligence” from Yeh, but that they were not documents.
In related news, the family of Chen’s daughter-in-law, Huang Jui-ching’s (黃睿靚), were questioned by prosecutors yesterday on suspicion that they served as dummy accounts for the Chen family’s money-laundering activities overseas.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP) summoned Huang Jui-ching’s (黃睿靚) father Huang Bai-lu (黃百祿), her mother Wu Li-hua (吳麗華) and her younger brother Huang Han-chiang (黃漢強).
Wu Li Hua’s brother Wu Ching-mao (吳景茂) and his wife Chen Chun-ying (陳俊英) were also summoned for questioning yesterday.
Wu Ching-mao’s son Wu Tai-te (吳泰德), who is studying in the US, did not show up.
The five and two other witnesses left in the evening after the interviews.
SIP spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) told a press conference that prosecutors summoned them on suspicion that their overseas accounts served as the depository for the funds the former first couple remitted out of the country, but he refused to detail the contents of the meeting.
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