The Presidential Office will establish a task force to investigate allegations of misconduct by its former deputy secretary-general, Chen Che-nan (陳哲男), after an accounting official was summoned by prosecutors and questioned regarding her involvement in the affair.
Office Spokesman Chen Wen-tsung (
Chen Che-nan, who has been indicted for alleged corruption in connection with the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) scandal, was on Tuesday stripped of two honors conferred on him by President Chen Shui-bian (
"We found that during the period Chen Che-nan asked the staffer, surnamed Kao, to assist him in buying stocks, the `abnormal' transactions in the staffer's account amounted to NT$5 to 6 million [US$148,713 to US$178,456]," said Fon Shui-lin (
Fon said he knew that Chen Che-nan had asked a staffer to handle some of his personal business more than a year ago, but that he hadn't inquired into the matter out of respect for Chen Che-nan's privacy.
"Not until the staffer was summoned for questioning by prosecutors on Nov. 2 did the Presidential Office realize that stock transactions were also included in the personal business,'" Fon said.
Presidential Office Accounting Department official Kao Shen-shen (
"Kao dealt with Chen's [Che-nan] private financial affairs from 2000 to 2005, when Chen served as the Presidential Office's deputy secretary-general," Chung Chung-xiao (鍾忠孝), a spokesman for the Kaoshiung District Prosecutors Office, said yesterday.
"Prosecutors are investigating whether Kao ever helped Chen launder money," Chung said.
Chen Che-nan initially asked the staffer to look after such personal business as his monthly salary remittances, making bank deposits and withdrawals and paying his income tax.
He also repeatedly asked the staffer to buy stocks, Chen Wen-tsung said.
He said the staffer had been carrying out such tasks since May 2000.
As Chen Che-nan's conduct violated the Civil Servant Work Act (
If Kao illegally handled Chen's financial affairs, she might have violated the Money Laundering Control Act (
As of press time, the questioning was still underway.
Chung said prosecutors are also going through the accounts of Chen Che-nan's relatives and close friends.
Chung said, however, that if Chen transferred illegal money to bank accounts overseas, it would be difficult for prosecutors to track down the money.
On Wednesday, Kaoshiung prosecutors summoned Chen Che-nan's niece, Kuo Shi-ji (郭旭姬), for questioning, and prosecutors said they have asked Chen's older sister to report next week.
Meanwhile, Kuo yesterday accused independent Legislator Chiu Yi (
Kuo told reporters that Chou released a press statement on Wednesday afternoon, saying Chen Che-nan had deposited more than NT$50 million in her account, and that to avoid an investigation into the KRTC scandal, Chen had asked her to transfer the deposit from her account to her parents' accounts on Oct. 14.
Kuo said that on Oct. 14, she had withdrawn NT$7.5 million from her account, but said that the money was her and her husband's savings, and that there had never been NT$50 million in her account.
Kuo said Chou was like a "mad dog, biting innocent people."
The Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau released a press statement yesterday saying that it had examined Kuo's accounts, and that it had never found a NT$50 million deposit, so what Chou had said was incorrect.
Because Chiu Yi has revealed a lot of information regarding the investigation into the KRTC scandal, which could only have been leaked from agents from the bureau's Kaoshiung branch, the bureau on Thursday sent officials to Kaoshiung to probe the leaks.
Chen Che-nan was released on NT$500,000 bail last week after being being indicted on corruption charges linked to the expanding KRTC scandal.
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