Smurfs are little animated cartoon characters that were popular in the US about 10 years ago. They were noteworthy in that they all looked alike; small, blue and always in some kind of trouble. Smurfing is law enforcement slang for a kind of money laundering. When a criminal "smurfs" they divide their large cash deposits into smaller amounts and deposits them into different accounts. And of course, spies are the folks who are supposed to protect their nation by gathering intelligence.
All of this comes to mind due to the recent case of soon-to-retire National Security Bureau (NSB) Colonel Liu Kuan-chun
Liu is due to retire in August. His explanation for money was that it was, "the result of a misunderstanding. The money constitutes some of the financial assets of my family..."
The NSB did an in-house investigation and cleared Liu of any wrongdoing. Whether Liu came by this large amount of money legally or illegally, the results of an in-house NSB investigation would have had the same verdict: innocent.
The reason for this predetermined result is obvious. On the one hand, the colonel's money may be legally his. In which case civil servants are better paid than I thought and the NSB's verdict of no wrongdoing would be accurate and fair. The other possibility is that Liu "helped himself" to some money that perhaps he was not entitled to. In criminal law that is called embezzlement.
But to avoid public scandal, to avoid a call for an independent audit and to preserve the "face" of the NSB -- the in-house investigation would still render a public verdict of "no wrong-doing." The first moral is: taking the NSB's word for it is foolish.
The NSB giving Liu's bank accounts a clean bill of health is meaningless; the bureau is going to say the same thing regardless of the reality of the situation.
The second moral is: there needs to be an independent audit and investigation of the colonel and his various bank accounts.
I have noted over the years apathy among the public concerning theft by government officials. A large part of that apathy comes from the mistaken idea that: "Oh, it is okay if government official `X' stole lots of money, after all it is just the government's money."
It is not. When officials steal "government" money they are in fact stealing from each and every taxpayer. That fact seems to elude the Taiwanese public. Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) has spoken often in the media about "black gold" politics. Part of "black gold" politics is officials helping themselves to public funds. Perhaps the Ministry of Justice would do well to conduct a serious and transparent audit in cases like Liu's.
I don't know if Liu is innocent or not. Nobody knows at this point. The public doesn't, nor the legislature, the Ministry of Justice, or Taiwan's taxpayers.
The bare facts do not bode well for an innocent explanation; two weeks before the election, a soon-to-retire colonel suddenly comes into NT$90 million which he puts into several accounts and wires most of it offshore. This is a routine family transaction? Well the Smurfs were always in some kind of trouble.
Brian Kennedy is an attorney who writes and teaches on criminal justice and human rights issues.
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