Prosecutors in charge of investigating former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) alleged money-laundering activities and secret overseas bank accounts recently named former presidential adviser Wu Li-pei (吳澧培) as a defendant in the case.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP) yesterday said prosecutors recently named Wu as a defendant because he allegedly had a part in helping the former first family launder money.
Prosecutors allege that in February last year, former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) wired US$1.91 million from her brother Wu Ching-mao’s (吳景茂) bank accounts in Singapore to Wu Li-pei’s bank accounts. Prosecutors allege the money was divided into three transactions to avoid arousing suspicion.
Prosecutors have frozen the funds in Wu Li-pei’s bank accounts until the investigation is concluded.
Other people who have recently been named as defendants for allegedly helping the former first family launder money include former China Development Financial Holding Corp president Angelo Koo (辜仲瑩), China Development Financial chief financial officer Sherie Chiu (邱德馨), former China Steel Corp chairman Lin Wen-yuan (林文淵), Yuanta Financial Holding Co president Victor Ma (馬維建), former Yuanta Securities Corp board member Tu Li-ping (杜麗萍) and chairwoman Judy Tu (杜麗莊), Wu Ching-mao and his wife Chen Chun-ying (陳俊英), as well as Chen Shui-bian’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚).
In related news, prosecutors yesterday summoned former Presidential Office secretary Chen Hsin-yi (陳心怡) to question her on suspicion that she destroyed evidence related to the former president’s corruption cases. She was among the defendants who were investigated by prosecutors at the request of the Taipei District Court.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
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