Former president Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) bookkeeper, Chen Chen-hui (陳鎮慧), said yesterday she was never instructed by Chen Shui-bian to wire money from the “state affairs fund” to overseas bank accounts.
Chen Chen-hui made the remarks in court yesterday as she testified on her handling of the former first family's finances in Chen Shui-bian's trial for alleged embezzlement of the presidential “state affairs fund.”
She appeared as a defense witness.
She told the court that in addition to keeping books, she sometimes ran errands for former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍).
She said Wu would sometimes ask her to put money into a safe at the Cathay United Bank, but she did not know where the money came from — Wu only told her it was election campaign funds donated by others. The amount of money in the safe reached NT$1.1 billion (US$32 million) at one point, she said.
“I was only following orders,” she said.
She would usually get a call at the last minute from Wu, who would tell her to go to the presidential residence for instructions about making money transactions, she said.
Asked by Chen Shui-bian yesterday whether he had ever instructed her to produce false reports of lists of office personnel to receive cash awards, she said “no.”
The list was a method used by former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) and other aides to get around new accounting rules.
Ma told the Taipei District Court last week that after 2002, changes in accounting regulations made use of the “state affairs fund” less flexible, so aides used the list to file applications for reimbursements.
Prosecutors allege that more than NT$27 million was withdrawn from the fund through the use of “inappropriate receipts” to claim reimbursements.
Chen Shui-bian and his wife have denied that any of the money was used for their family's personal expenses.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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