Former Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau director-general Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂) was yesterday sentenced to one year in prison, commuted to six months, the Taiwan High Court said in a ruling.
The court said the ruling was final and the six-month term could be commuted to a fine.
The court said Yeh turned over information concerning then-president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) family members to Chen when he was in the middle of a scandal about possible money laundering overseas, which gave the Chen family time to rearrange their affairs.
At the center of the money laundering case was a report delivered to Yeh’s bureau in December 2006 through the Egmont Group, an international organization against money laundering. The report by the financial intelligence unit of Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, raised the suspicion that the Chen family was laundering money through an account created in the name of then-first lady Wu Shu-jen’s (吳淑珍) brother, Wu Ching-mao (吳景茂), who had transferred funds from Singapore to Jersey.
The court said that after the family learned of the report, Chen and Wu’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), left Taiwan to make arrangements.
Yeh was previously convicted of concealing government documents and leaking confidential information to Chen Shui-bian. He served a total of 681 days in prison before being released on parole in August last year.
Meanwhile, the Taiwan High Court’s Greater Taichung branch yesterday handed down a ruling in the retrial of former Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar) chairman and former DPP secretary-general Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) in a case involving the 2003 sale of property belonging to Taisugar in the Wu Feng Industrial Park in then-Taichung County.
The court sentenced Wu to 18 months in prison, commuted to nine months. Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌) was acquitted in the same ruling. Both rulings are final.
Wu was accused of giving in, as Taisugar chairman, to Hong’s lobbying for Chun Lung Co, a property developer, to ensure that it won the right to purchase a plot of land it was renting from Taisugar.
The ruling said Wu had violated Taisugar’s “rent only” policy on its properties and the sale had caused Taisugar losses, so he was guilty of breach of trust.
The ruling said Hong accompanied the owner of Chun Lung Co on a visit to Wu, but he was not involved in the land deal.
Hong was originally sentenced by the Greater Taichung branch in March last year to two years and four months in prison, while Wu was given a sentence of three years and 10 months, but they were granted a retrial.
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