Prosecutors investigating former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday denied they were looking into allegations that the former president deposited US$40 million in laundered funds in a bank account in Palau.
Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南), spokesperson for the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office Special Investigation Panel (SIP) said prosecutors were not probing the allegations, but hinted that “other units” were looking into the matter.
When asked what units were investigating the allegations, Chen Yun-nan declined to comment.
The Chinese-language weekly Next Magazine yesterday said that when Chen visited Palau in September 2006, he may have taken US$40 million with him and deposited it in Palau’s National Development Bank.
The bank received a large deposit in one of its accounts during Chen’s visit, the magazine said.
The magazine said US officials suspect money laundering because the US$40 million was then wired to accounts in the US through several transactions.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
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