Former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) and the former director of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) office, Lin Teh-hsun (林德訓), yesterday reiterated their denial of any wrongdoing related to the presidential “state affairs fund.”
The Taipei District Court yesterday called the two former aides for a final hearing before the embezzlement trial against the former first family opens.
When the two appeared at the previous hearing more than a week ago, they sought to blame Chen Chen-hui (陳鎮慧), the former president’s bookkeeper, and 10 other accounting secretaries.
Ma and Lin are accused of assisting the former first family in embezzling NT$104.15 million (US$3 million) in government funds earmarked for Chen Shui-bian’s discretionary use while he was in office. Prosecutors allege that more than NT$27 million had been obtained using “inappropriate receipts” to claim reimbursements from the fund.
The district court ruled that Ma should be indicted as an accomplice because he was one of the people who had approved inappropriate reimbursements from the fund.
“Even though I was the one who signed the approvals, I did this under instructions from the accounting personnel,” Ma told the court.
Defense attorneys requested that the court summon 12 witnesses who had served as accounting department officials in the Presidential Office under the former president.
The court ruled that the trial would begin on April 8, and would call Chen Chen-hui as the first witness.
Defense attorney Richard Lee (李勝琛) said at a previous hearing that because his clients were not accounting officers, they did not know anything about the auditing process involved in the reimbursement process.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS