Former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) and former presidential aide Lin Teh-hsun (林德訓) reported to the Supreme Prosecutor Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP) yesterday as prosecutors continued their investigation into the alleged misuse of a state affairs fund and money laundering by the former first family.
Ma and Lin were summoned because they had helped former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) handle affairs related to the fund.
Meanwhile, a group of SIP investigators searched safe deposit boxes belonging to the former first family member at the Minsheng branch of Changhua Bank. Chen Shui-bian’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) was present during the process. Investigators said they found only jewelry and did not discover anything related to the cases they were working on. Nothing from the safe deposit boxes was confiscated, but pictures of the jewelry were taken for reference.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
Former Presidential Office cashier Chen Chen-hui (陳鎮慧) was interrogated for the fourth time on Thursday over her suspected role in helping transfer money into the overseas accounts of the former first family. She was also named the sixth suspect in the case. Late on Thursday, a court granted a prosecutors’ request to detain her.
The former first lady’s brother, Wu Ching-mao (吳景茂), was also questioned again on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, the SIP raided Chen Shui-bian’s office and residence after reviewing information provided by Singapore on the bank accounts of his family members.
The residence of Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤), the former president’s daughter, was also searched. Chen Hsing-yu is not listed as a suspect.
Chen Shui-bian, his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), son Chen Chih-chung, daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚), and Wu Ching-mao have been named suspects in the case and have been barred from leaving the country.
The residences of the staff of Rich Development, a major property developer in Ilan, were also searched on Thursday. Investigators suspect that Kuo Chuan-ching (郭銓慶), chairman of Rich Development, transferred tens of millions of dollars to Wu Ching-mao’s bank accounts in Singapore.
The residences of family members of Tsai Mei-li (蔡美利), a college classmate of the former first lady, were also searched. Prosecutors suspect Wu Shu-jen used bank accounts of Tsai and her family members to transfer money overseas.
The former president watched investigators conduct the search at his office before departing for Taichung, where he was interviewed by a radio station and had lunch with the Central Taiwan Society.
Prosecutors first searched the former president’s Xinyi District (信義) residence on Aug. 16. Next magazine, a weekly tabloid, reported on Aug. 13 that soon after the exposure of the “state affairs fund” case in 2006, the first lady closed bank accounts belonging to herself and her husband, as well as several created under the names of her children, which were used for stock trading. The former first lady then remitted NT$300 million overseas through various bank accounts belonging to her daughter-in-law and other family members, the weekly said.
The former president said on Aug. 14 that without his knowledge, his wife had wired overseas surplus campaign expenses from his two mayoral elections and two presidential elections.
The former first lady was charged with corruption and forgery in November 2006 for allegedly using receipts provided by others to claim reimbursements totaling NT$14.8 million from the president’s “state affairs fund” between July 2002 and March 2006.
Former president Chen, who had immunity from prosecution while in office, was probed for his role in the “state affairs fund” case soon after he stepped down from the presidency on May 20.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIMMY CHUANG
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