Taipei District Prosecutors yesterday added more charges against detained former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), alleging the former president instructed his former aides to lie about the reimbursement processes for the presidential “state affairs fund.”
Prosecutors allege that in 2006, when he was still in office, Chen called a meeting at the Presidential Office with former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) and former Presidential Office director Lin Teh-hsun (林德訓) to instruct them to lie about inappropriate receipts that were used in reimbursements for the fund.
Although Ma and Lin allegedly complied with Chen’s request, prosecutors did not charge Ma because the false testimony was not given when Ma was questioned as a witness.
PHOTO: CNA
Additional perjury cases were opened last September.
Ma and Lin were convicted of helping the former first family launder money in the first round of legal proceedings at the Taipei District Court last year. They were sentenced to 16 years and 20 years in prison respectively as well as being stripped of their civil rights for eight years and 10 years.
Former Hsinchu Science Park head James Lee (李界木) was also charged with perjury yesterday. Prosecutors allege Lee gave false testimony regarding the government’s purchase of a plot of land in Longtan (龍潭), Taoyuan County.
In related news, former Yuanta Financial Holding Co president Victor Ma (馬維建) and former Yuanta Securities Corp board member Tu Li-ping (杜麗萍) yesterday pleaded guilty in court to helping the former first family launder money.
The two said they hoped that by pleading guilty, they would be able to enter plea-bargaining to receive lighter sentences.
Another defendant who was summoned to court, Cathay Financial Holdings Co vice chairman Tsai Chen-yu (蔡鎮宇), yesterday angrily accused prosecutors of ruining his reputation with false charges.
Tsai defended himself by saying the money he gave to the former first family was not a bribe, but a political donation, because his father Tsai Wan-lin (蔡萬霖) had been a long-time supporter of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Tsai said he was following his father’s instructions and denied allegations that prior to the merger of Cathay Financial Holdings and Cathay United Bank, the Tsai family bribed the former president into pressuring the Ministry of Finance to approve the merger.
The indictment of high-profile businesspeople and members of the former first family were issued on Dec. 24 when Chen and his wife were accused of taking bribes from executives of banks and financial holding companies who sought to “protect” themselves and their businesses from being adversely affected during the second phase of financial reform.
One of the financial consolidation cases involved Yuanta Financial Holding’s merger with Fuhwa Financial Holding Co, the nation’s 11th-largest financial group by assets in April 2007.
Prosecutors allege that Chen and his wife took NT$600 million (US$19 million) from Cathay Financial Group and more than NT$200 million from Yuanta Securities as a “payment” for ensuring the financial groups’ mergers and acquisitions of smaller financial institutions went smoothly.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
RSS