US officials recently visited Taiwan to probe money laundering claims against former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), as part of efforts to expropriate his properties in the US, a prosecutor said yesterday.
A federal prosecutor from Washington and three agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement were in Taiwan last week for Chen’s case, said Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達), chief of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Prosecutors Division.
“They stayed for three days to obtain information and exchange opinions with us on Chen’s case,” a spokesman said.
In court proceedings that began last month, the US government is seeking to expropriate two properties owned by Chen and his wife, allegedly bought with money the couple received in the form of bribes while in power.
According to a civil forfeiture complaint filed in New York and Virginia, former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) was paid US$6 million to prevent her husband’s government from interfering in a company’s takeover bid for a rival.
Chen’s office has said that the properties were acquired with legitimate funds received from political donations.
Chen Hung-ta said the US authorities were empowered by the laws of that country to confiscate the properties, without needing to wait until the trial of the former first couple is completed in Taiwan.
Chen Hung-ta said local and US officials did not touch on the issue of how the proceeds from the properties, if confiscated and sold, would be distributed between the two countries.
Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), the former president’s son, has argued that the US government’s civil forfeiture complaints against properties owned by his parents were “illogical,” claiming they were procured with money from “political contributions donated to his father.”
According to the complaints filed in New York and Virginia, Taiwan’s Yuanta Securities Co paid a bribe of NT$200 million (US$6.3 million) between 2005 and 2006 to Wu, to ensure Chen’s administration would not interfere with its bid to acquire additional shares in Fuhwa Financial Holdings Co (復華金控).
The complaint goes on to say that Wu laundered the money using shell companies and Swiss bank accounts controlled by Chen Chih-chung and his wife, Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚). Some of the money was allegedly transferred to the US and used to buy a condominium in Manhattan and a house in Keswick, Virginia, the complaint says.
This is the second time the US has sent officials to Taiwan to investigate Chen Shui-bian. A team of US judicial affairs officials visited last year to discuss the issue with local prosecutors and foreign ministry officials.
The former president and his wife were sentenced to life in prison and fined NT$200 million and NT$300 million respectively in September last year on charges of taking bribes, money laundering and forgery.
They both appealed and had their sentences reduced to 20 years and their fines cut to NT$170 million and NT$200 million respectively on June 11. Both prosecutors and the couple appealed the new sentences.
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