A High Court ruling yesterday could pave the way for the return to the government of US$520 million of illegal proceeds from arms dealer Andrew Wang’s (汪傳浦) family in the latest chapter of the Lafayette frigate procurement scandal .
This amount would be in addition to a 2019 ruling by the Supreme Court for the return of US$312.5 million while Wang’s family, who is living in Europe, continued to fight the charges.
Wang reportedly died in the UK in 2015.
Image composed by Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Ministry of Justice officials said that through investigations and cooperation with foreign authorities, they found that Wang had stashed his illegal proceeds from the Lafayette frigate scandal in 61 accounts, mainly in Swiss banks, as well as accounts held by his family in banks in about a dozen countries and territories, including Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Jersey island and the Isle of Man.
Ministry officials have asked these countries and jurisdictions to freeze the assets pending court rulings on the case in Taiwan, media reports said.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, Switzerland in February agreed to return US$266 million to Taiwan, while the procedure for the return of another US$312.5 million is under way, ministry officials said.
Judicial investigators said that Wang’s widow and his four children have continued to file lawsuits against the government in an attempt to hold on to the estimated US$600 million in their overseas accounts.
In 1991, Wang brokered the deal between French contractor Thomson-CSF (later renamed Thales Group) and the Taiwanese military to purchase six frigates.
The deal soon became embroiled in allegations of corruption, bribery and other illegal activities involving Wang, Taiwanese naval officials and many other parties.
Wang fled Taiwan on Dec. 20, 1993, after the body of navy captain Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓) was found in waters off Taiwan’s east coast on Dec. 9 that year.
Yin was reportedly a whistle-blower who had planned to report the graft and money being siphoned off by numerous people involved in the deal.
A fugitive since 1993 who is on Taiwan’s most wanted list, Wang reportedly died in the UK in 2015 at the age of 86. However, some say he faked his death to avoid prosecution.
Prosecutors in 2006 indicted Wang on bribery, money laundering and related illegal actions, seeking a life sentence for him, as well as a 16-year term for his wife, and terms of between 11 and 14 years for his four children.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS