Lee Bi-chun (李碧君), a key figure in the embezzlement allegations surrounding the first family, has been banned from leaving the country, a prosecutor said yesterday.
"Lee will be subpoenaed later, and the order restricting her from leaving the country is a measure to make sure future investigations proceed smoothly," said Eric Chen (陳瑞仁), a prosecutor at the Black Gold Investigation Center of the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) has accused first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) of pocketing cash through reimbursements from fake expenditures, using receipts provided by Lee, a close friend of the first lady.
Chiu Yi said that some of the receipts Lee Bi-chun gave to Wu were from Lee Bi-chun's cousin, Ligi Lee (李慧芬), a Taiwanese fashion designer based in Australia, saying that the receipts were issued by the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taipei.
The Chinese-language newspaper the United Daily News yesterday reported that Ligi Lee planned to return to Taiwan from Australia next week with documents proving that she had offered some receipts to Lee Bi-chun and the first lady.
"I will hold a press conference to declare that I have offered receipts for more than NT$7 million (US$213,000) to be reimbursed from the fund," the newspaper quoted Ligi Lee as saying.
Chen yesterday said that prosecutors would interview Ligi Lee if she were to return to the country.
Apart from the receipts from the Hyatt, Chiu also claimed that Lee Bi-chun had provided some receipts that had been issued by the Ambassador Hotel and Sogo Department Store, among others.
Ministry of Audit Spokesman Wang Yung-hsing (王永興) said the ministry had found that some copies of the receipts Chiu submitted to the ministry had been used to reimburse expenditures from the fund, and the ministry had sent these documents to the prosecutors.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
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