The government has filed lawsuits against a self-professed diplomatic broker at large in the US to seek the return of money he has allegedly embezzled.
According to Maxwell Lin (林英郎), an attorney hired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, two separate suits have been filed in Los Angeles in a bid to retrieve money from Ching Chi-ju (金紀玖), the prime suspect in a high-profile diplomatic fraud case involving high-ranking officials.
Ching and his alleged accomplice, Wu Shih-tsai (吳思材), were commissioned by then-foreign minister James Huang (黃志芳) in 2006 to help facilitate a deal to establish diplomatic ties with Papua New Guinea.
Photo: CNA
The ministry then remitted US$29.8 million into a joint account that the pair opened in Singapore to be used as financial aid for Papua New Guinea.
The ministry later filed a lawsuit in Singapore after it discovered the money had gone missing.
The Singapore Supreme Court last year upheld a Singapore High Court ruling that granted Taiwan’s request that Ching and Wu return the US$29.8 million to the government.
Wu, who is serving a jail term in Taiwan for his role in the diplomatic fraud, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison on Nov. 15 on charges of breach of trust, while Ching fled to the US and transferred some of his assets to his children and to his company.
Lin said he filed a lawsuit with the Los Angeles High Court in August to ask for recognition of the Singapore court ruling and another last week seeking the cancelation of an application by Ching to transfer the ownership of a piece of land in Arcadia, a suburb in Los Angeles.
The suit said the land has been transferred between members of Ching’s family and that the timing is linked to when the pair received the money and when the Singapore court handed down its ruling.
According to the suit, Ching’s wife, son and daughter, as well as his company, have also been listed as defendants.
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