The Supreme Court of Singapore handed out a ruling yesterday in which it ordered Ching Chi-ju (金紀玖) to return US$29.8 million that he embezzled from Taiwan during an abortive attempt to help Taiwan forge diplomatic links with Papua New Guinea in 2006. Ching was the middleman in the high-profile Papua New Guinea diplomacy scandal.
Calling the verdict a “belated justice,” Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that it would do all it can to see the money returned.
APPEAL
On May 10, the Singapore High Court granted Taiwan’s request that Ching and the man he allegedly helped embezzle the funds, Wu Shih-tsai (吳思才), return the US$29.8 million to the Taiwanese government. Ching then filed an appeal against the ruling with the Singapore Supreme Court.
Ching did not appear in court yesterday but was represented by his lawyer, who argued that his client had no intention of embezzling the money.
Unconvinced, the court said it had not seen Ching offer sufficient evidence to prove his argument, and ruled to uphold the high court’s ruling.
Ministry legal official Chen Shou-han (陳首翰), who was sent by the Taiwanese government to sit in court and hear the verdict, said after the ruling that “it came as a belated justice.”
SPENDING MONEY
The case came to light when it was disclosed that in 2006 the ministry remitted US$30 million into a joint bank account in Singapore opened by Ching and Wu, with US$200,000 to be used as spending money by the duo.
However, the Papua New Guinea deal never materialized and the men were accused of stealing the money.
Wu was arrested in Taiwan in 2008 and sentenced to two years and four months in jail, which he is still serving.
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