The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP) yesterday confirmed that former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) gave a list to prosecutors that detailed political donations totaling NT$1.21 billion (US$35 million) offered by 20 businesspeople to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
SIP Spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) said that “the document Wu gave prosecutors was related to enterprises offering funds to Chen.” But Chen Yun-nan refused to confirm any names on the list or how much money each had offered.
Chen Yun-nan made the remarks in response to a story in yesterday’s edition of Next Magazine that said Wu had given the list to SIP prosecutors on Feb. 3.
The magazine reported that donors included late Formosa Plastics Group chairman Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), late Yulon Motor Co chairwoman Wu Shuen-wen (吳舜文), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), founding chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Morris Chang (張忠謀), Far Eastern Group chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東), Taishin Financial chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮), Cathay Financial Holding Co chairman Tsai Hung-tu (蔡宏圖), former Chinatrust Financial Holding Co vice chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒), Yuanta Group chairman Rudy Ma (馬志玲), Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) founder Rong San Lin (林榮三) and others.
Wu Shu-jen’s lawyer Lin Chih-chung (林志忠) told reporters that Wu had given the list to prosecutors to cooperate with their ongoing investigations.
As of press time, Morris Chang and Douglas Hsu had released press statements denying they had offered money to Chen.
A spokesperson from the Liberty Times dismissed the report as false.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Su Cheng-ching (蘇震清) said “it is immoral to release the names of enterprisers who offered political donations to Chen in good faith.”
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) said he was concerned that enterprises might not offer political donations to the DPP and its politicians in the future following the publicity.
Meanwhile, Chen Shui-bian’s lawyer Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍) said yesterday that Chen proposed suing four SIP prosecutors for abuse of power and forgery.
Cheng said the former president believed the four prosecutors had illegally asked Jeffrey Koo Jr to make a false statement during questioning as prosecutors investigated the Hsinchu Science Park’s alleged purchase of a piece of land in Longtan (龍潭), Taoyuan County, from Koo’s company at a higher-than-market price in 2004.
Cheng added that Chen was angry with prosecutors for making what he said were fake statements against him.
Chen Shui-bian, his wife, son and daughter-in-law were indicted on Dec. 12 on charges of corruption, money laundering, embezzlement and forgery.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater