Friday 5 December 2008

Taiwan Former Top Investigator Gets 10 Years’ Jail for Corruption


First person punished in graft scandals implicating Chen Shui-bian

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Taiwan Former Top Investigator Gets 10 Years’ Jail for Corruption

First person punished in graft scandals implicating Chen

Lawrence Chung in Taipei
5 December 2008

Former Taiwanese top investigator Yeh Sheng-mao received a 10-year jail sentence yesterday, becoming the first person punished in a series of high-profile corruption scandals in which former president Chen Shui-bian and his family are implicated.

Yeh’s lawyer promised his client would appeal.

Yeh, former head of the Investigation Bureau under the Justice Ministry, was convicted in Taipei District Court on a charge of leaking secrets to Mr. Chen while he was president, thereby allowing Mr. Chen’s family to continue to launder funds abroad.

“The defendant was given a prison term of eight years and six months because what he did had helped the other party to cover up their crime and move their funds elsewhere in order to continue to keep their illicit gains,” said court spokesman Huang Chun-min, referring to the wiring of US$21 million abroad by Mr. Chen’s family.

Mr. Huang said Yeh was also sentenced to two years and six months in jail for leaking secrets to a lawmaker in another case over an upcoming search of the lawmaker’s office for alleged bribery.

However, because both crimes were similar offences, Yeh’s jail time was reduced by one year.

The court denied a bail request by Yeh, who has been detained since October 6, on the grounds that he might abscond in light of the heavy jail sentence he faces.

Yeh’s wife yesterday criticised the judiciary for infringement of human rights. His lawyer, Tu Ying-ta, said the ruling had left him confused.

“We can’t figure out why the court would make such a ruling,” he said.

Yeh was the first person to be charged and sentenced. He was among a dozen suspects - including Mr. Chen - detained in connection with three major corruption scandals surrounding Mr. Chen and his family.

The scandals include the 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 that they had frozen US$21 million in two accounts opened by Mr. Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung, and daughter-in-law in the Cayman Islands after detecting unusual cash flows and suspecting money laundering.

The action prompted Mr. Chen to admit in August that his wife had wired US$21 million abroad without his knowledge. He did not reveal how and when the money was wired abroad, but stressed they were funds left over from presidential campaign donations.

Yeh confessed after he was indicted in August that he had twice leaked intelligence to Mr. Chen that the global anti-money-laundering group Egmont was targeting his family.

In its verdict yesterday, the district court pieced together how the Chen family had laundered funds.

It noted that Egmont first informed the Investigation Bureau of suspected money laundering in the Jersey Islands by Chen’s brother-in-law on December 11, 2006. Yeh leaked that information to Mr. Chen.

On December 12 last year, Yeh informed Mr. Chen’s former aide that Egmont was after the family again. Two days later, the son went abroad and wired US$1.91 million to a Singapore bank account set up by Mr. Chen’s brother-in-law. In January this year, Switzerland froze the US$21 million funds, and Yeh leaked that information to Mr. Chen.

On February 19, the son went abroad again and, four days later, US$1.91 million was wired from the brother-in-law’s account in Singapore to four US bank accounts set up by Wu Li-pei, a former adviser to Mr. Chen.

After Yeh had confessed to leaking the information to Mr. Chen, Mr. Chen claimed in October that the US$1.91 million was also previous campaign donations, which he thought would be best to send to Wu Li-pei to finance “secret diplomatic work”.

The court said the frequent and unusual fund transfers represented too many suspicious activities involving the son and the family.