After a three-month investigation, prosecutors at the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office (台北地檢署) yesterday charged former chairwoman of the Central Broadcasting System (CBS, 中央廣播電台) Gloria Chu (朱婉清) with embezzlement, asking that Chu be given one year and two months in prison.
According to prosecutor Wang Wen-te (
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
On Oct. 12, just a few hours after posting NT$500,000 bail and agreeing not to leave the country, Chu boarded an EVA Airways flight to Los Angeles. Although prosecutors in Taipei immediately contacted US immigration authorities, Chu was granted provisional entry into the US on Oct. 14, after 12 hours of questioning by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Chu held a press conference in LA on the same day, claiming that her hasty departure was made in order to accompany her 16-year-old son to Valley Forge, a military boarding school in Pennsylvania.
Chu also said that she could not come back to Taiwan right away since the US government had temporarily seized her passport.
On Oct. 27, to the surprise of Taipei prosecutors and local media, Chu attended an interview with US immigration authorities and was granted a green card, under a priority immigration scheme for talented and outstanding individuals. According to US immigration officials, there were no grounds to deny Chu's application since she had not yet been convicted of any crime.
Chu's case has been the subject of much discussion in Taiwan due to her social status as a former high-level government official and a long-time aide to KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Some allege that the missing money actually went to Lien's presidential campaign last year, but the KMT has denied this.
Because of her connections with the Lien family, Chu was fortunate in her official career, and has often been called the "housekeeper" (
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