Switzerland is to return US$6.74 million to Taiwan from a fund held by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) that was implicated in graft tied to a high-profile financial merger, Taiwanese prosecutors said yesterday.
Chen and family members have been accused of laundering millions of US dollars by sending political donations and secret diplomatic funds abroad, as well as taking kickbacks on government contracts and bribes from businesses during his presidency from 2000 to 2008.
Among the cases, Chen was convicted of taking approximately US$6.74 million in bribes paid by Yuanta Securities to facilitate its merger with another company in a final ruling in 2012.
Taipei in 2013 requested that Switzerland return the money, which had been frozen in Swiss accounts in the names of Chen’s son and daughter-in-law, although the couple contested the move in Swiss courts, according to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division (SID).
“We were notified by Swiss prosecutors that the Swiss Supreme Court has ruled that the fund in connection to the Yuanta financial merger case will be returned to Taiwan soon,” SID spokesman Kuo Wen-tung (郭文東) said.
Swiss authorities had already returned about US$22 million in deposits held by Chen following his corruption conviction in several other cases, according to the office.
Chen, who had been serving a 20-year jail term on multiple graft and money laundering convictions related to his time in office, was released on medical parole in early January after being diagnosed with severe depression, suspected Parkinson’s disease and other conditions.
Chen insists that the charges against him are part of a politically motivated vendetta by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in retaliation for his years in power when he promoted the idea of the nation declaring independence from China.
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