Liechtenstein has handed over to Taiwan about US$11 million deposited in the country as part of illicit kickbacks involved in the Lafayette frigate scandal dating back three decades, the Ministry of Justice said on Thursday.
The first tranche of the illegal profits deposited in several countries has arrived in the account of the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office following international judicial cooperation, the ministry said in a press release.
The money would be returned to the national treasury, it said.
The scandal occurred in the late 1980s when the French government, through former partially state-owned enterprise Elf Aquitaine, was alleged to have paid bribes to secure a deal with Taiwan to deliver six Lafayette-class frigates.
The warships were sold via another French firm, Thomson-CSF, now Thales, to the navy in a US$2.8 billion deal signed in 1991, a figure said to include kickbacks and bribes that facilitated the purchase.
Liechtenstein in September 2006 responded positively to Taiwan’s request to freeze the illicit funds that went to deceased arms broker Andrew Wang (汪傳浦), the ministry said.
Since rulings by the Supreme Court in 2019 and 2021 that permitted the seizure of about US$487 million from the heirs of Wang, prosecutors have been in talks with Liechtenstein to have the money deposited there returned to Taiwan, the ministry said.
Most of the money was deposited in banks in Switzerland and the promised restitution of US$266 million made by the Swiss Department of Justice and Police in February 2021 is still being negotiated, the ministry said.
The Constitutional Court late last year ruled that the government could seize US$480 million from accounts belonging to the estate of Wang by retroactively applying property seizure rules that were amended in the Criminal Code in 2016.
The decision threw out a constitutional challenge by Wang’s wife, Yeh Hsiu-chen (葉秀貞), Wei Chuan Foods Corp and other parties to property confiscation rules stipulated by the Criminal Code.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS