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Tuesday 9 December 2008
More Countries Enlisted in Chen Graft Investigation
Taiwanese investigators have been seeking help from the countries they suspect Chen Shui-bian and family used to illegally transfer state funds, the island’s media reported.
More Countries Enlisted in Chen Graft Investigation
Ng Tze-wei 8 December 2008
Taiwanese investigators have been seeking help from the countries they suspect Chen Shui-bian and family used to illegally transfer state funds, the island’s media reported.
Switzerland, Singapore, Japan and the United States are among the countries that have been asked to provide banking details in the rapidly expanding money-laundering investigation centred on the former Taiwanese president and his family, the China Times reported on Saturday.
The investigation has already traced funds to South Africa, Jersey and the Cayman Islands.
Chen Yun-nan, a spokesman for the special investigative taskforce under the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, confirmed the team had approached Japan through Interpol and that the country had agreed to help.
“One reason we are asking for judiciary help from the US, Japan and Singapore is to recover the illegal assets [the family] sent overseas. This is going to be a difficult duty for the investigation team in the years to come,” the Times quoted a source familiar with the situation as saying.
It was unclear from the China Times report who prosecutors had contacted for assistance in the United States. But the US Judiciary and Department of Homeland Security have already helped in the investigation into assets held by Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung. US authorities were involved once the son and his wife disappeared after failing to enroll at the University of Virginia as they had planned.
The Chen family - Chen, his wife, two children, in-laws, cousins and several close aides and friends - is under investigation for charges in relation to three corruption scandals.
These include the alleged embezzlement of NT$14.8 million (HK$3.4 million) in secret state funds, alleged influence-peddling involving bribes amounting to at least NT$500 million, and alleged money-laundering.
The money-laundering case came to light in July when judicial authorities in Switzerland informed Taipei they had frozen US$21 million in two accounts opened by Chen’s son, and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching, in the Cayman Islands after detecting unusual cash flows and suspecting money-laundering.
To help the investigation, the couple agreed at the end of last month to remit the US$21 million wired by the family abroad, a sum the family claimed was leftover campaign funds.
More sums are expected to emerge. Prosecutors have already discovered NT$740 million in new funds they suspect were used for bribery. Taiwanese media reported that Chen had personally carried this money in cash during diplomatic visits to two Pacific island nations in September 2006.
Chen is being held in a detention centre as the investigation continues. He claims the charges are politically driven, orchestrated by Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou in collaboration with Beijing in an attempt to stifle pro-independence forces on the island.
Former top investigator Yeh Sheng-mao received a 10-year jail sentence last Thursday, becoming the first person to be jailed in the affair. He was convicted for tipping off Chen about investigations by the global anti-money-laundering group Egmont targeting the family.
Chen’s son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming, was sentenced to seven years’ jail in December 2006 for using insider information to reap more than NT$100 million in profits.
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More Countries Enlisted in Chen Graft Investigation
Ng Tze-wei
8 December 2008
Taiwanese investigators have been seeking help from the countries they suspect Chen Shui-bian and family used to illegally transfer state funds, the island’s media reported.
Switzerland, Singapore, Japan and the United States are among the countries that have been asked to provide banking details in the rapidly expanding money-laundering investigation centred on the former Taiwanese president and his family, the China Times reported on Saturday.
The investigation has already traced funds to South Africa, Jersey and the Cayman Islands.
Chen Yun-nan, a spokesman for the special investigative taskforce under the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, confirmed the team had approached Japan through Interpol and that the country had agreed to help.
“One reason we are asking for judiciary help from the US, Japan and Singapore is to recover the illegal assets [the family] sent overseas. This is going to be a difficult duty for the investigation team in the years to come,” the Times quoted a source familiar with the situation as saying.
It was unclear from the China Times report who prosecutors had contacted for assistance in the United States. But the US Judiciary and Department of Homeland Security have already helped in the investigation into assets held by Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung. US authorities were involved once the son and his wife disappeared after failing to enroll at the University of Virginia as they had planned.
The Chen family - Chen, his wife, two children, in-laws, cousins and several close aides and friends - is under investigation for charges in relation to three corruption scandals.
These include the alleged embezzlement of NT$14.8 million (HK$3.4 million) in secret state funds, alleged influence-peddling involving bribes amounting to at least NT$500 million, and alleged money-laundering.
The money-laundering case came to light in July when judicial authorities in Switzerland informed Taipei they had frozen US$21 million in two accounts opened by Chen’s son, and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching, in the Cayman Islands after detecting unusual cash flows and suspecting money-laundering.
To help the investigation, the couple agreed at the end of last month to remit the US$21 million wired by the family abroad, a sum the family claimed was leftover campaign funds.
More sums are expected to emerge. Prosecutors have already discovered NT$740 million in new funds they suspect were used for bribery. Taiwanese media reported that Chen had personally carried this money in cash during diplomatic visits to two Pacific island nations in September 2006.
Chen is being held in a detention centre as the investigation continues. He claims the charges are politically driven, orchestrated by Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou in collaboration with Beijing in an attempt to stifle pro-independence forces on the island.
Former top investigator Yeh Sheng-mao received a 10-year jail sentence last Thursday, becoming the first person to be jailed in the affair. He was convicted for tipping off Chen about investigations by the global anti-money-laundering group Egmont targeting the family.
Chen’s son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming, was sentenced to seven years’ jail in December 2006 for using insider information to reap more than NT$100 million in profits.
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