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Wednesday 18 March 2009
I didn’t embezzle a cent, former first lady claims
Former Taiwanese first lady Wu Shu-chen denied she had used government money for personal purposes during a face-off in court with the family’s former chief accountant, Chen Cheng-hui.
I didn’t embezzle a cent, former first lady claims
Lawrence Chung in Taipei 18 March 2009
Former Taiwanese first lady Wu Shu-chen denied she had used government money for personal purposes during a face-off in court with the family’s former chief accountant, Chen Cheng-hui.
“All the money was handed to the president to cover [former president Chen Shui-bian’s] public activities,” said Wu, whose trial on charges of embezzlement, forgery, taking bribes and money-laundering began yesterday at the Taipei District Court.
She also insisted that money in her local bank account and funds she had wired abroad had been obtained legally.
Wu is charged, along with her husband, with embezzling NT$104 million (HK$24 million) in special state funds, accepting NT$498 million in bribes and laundering at least US$37 million abroad.
In pretrial hearings, she pleaded guilty to the money-laundering and forgery charges but denied embezzlement and accepting bribes.
Yesterday’s proceedings focused on the embezzlement charge.
Wu said Chen Cheng-hui - formerly Chen Shui-bian’s chief accountant - was the one responsible for accounting for spending from the state funds. “She did all the accounting,” Wu told the Taipei court during cross-examination.
However, Chen Cheng-hui - who agreed to testify for the prosecution after being charged in connection with the case - said she had acted on the instructions of Wu and two former chief aides to Chen Shui-bian, Ma Yung-cheng and Lin Teh-hsun, in accounting for the spending. Chen Cheng-hui pleaded guilty to embezzlement, money-laundering and forgery charges in pretrial hearings but said she carried out her crimes on the instructions of Ma, Lin and Wu.
Ma “asked me to take care of the secret funding claim portion of the special state fund”, she said, and Wu “asked me to send the money, sometimes NT$10 million, to her at the presidential residence”.
Taiwan’s special state funds are divided into cash for public activities and funding for secret diplomatic missions. The former needs official receipts to account for spending claims, while the latter only requires the signature of the president or a responsible presidential aide.
Chen Cheng-hui said Ma, a co-defendant in the embezzlement case, had initially withdrawn the cash from the cashier and given it to her, but later told her to withdraw the money from the cashier herself using his official seal.
“Whenever the first lady said the president was running out of the special state funds, she asked me to send her the money, ranging from NT$1 million to NT$10 million, and each time I had sought approval from Ma Yung-cheng or Lin Teh-hsun before I delivered the funds to the first lady,” Chen Cheng-hui said.
Wu denied that she had taken the initiative in asking Chen Cheng-hui to move the money to the presidential residence.
“She told me there was not enough space in the safe in the Presidential Office to keep the funds,” Wu said.
She argued that although the money was kept in her safe at the presidential residence, she had clearly separated the funds from her personal money and not a single cent from the special state funds had been spent for private purposes.
Asked why she had asked her relatives and friends to wire the money abroad, she said it was to make it easier for her to make investments overseas and to “avoid profit tax”.
She said all the funds she had had wired abroad were “left over from my dowry and previous campaign donations, stock investment returns, and previous gains from the law firm” that Chen Shui-bian operated before he was elected to public office.
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I didn’t embezzle a cent, former first lady claims
Lawrence Chung in Taipei
18 March 2009
Former Taiwanese first lady Wu Shu-chen denied she had used government money for personal purposes during a face-off in court with the family’s former chief accountant, Chen Cheng-hui.
“All the money was handed to the president to cover [former president Chen Shui-bian’s] public activities,” said Wu, whose trial on charges of embezzlement, forgery, taking bribes and money-laundering began yesterday at the Taipei District Court.
She also insisted that money in her local bank account and funds she had wired abroad had been obtained legally.
Wu is charged, along with her husband, with embezzling NT$104 million (HK$24 million) in special state funds, accepting NT$498 million in bribes and laundering at least US$37 million abroad.
In pretrial hearings, she pleaded guilty to the money-laundering and forgery charges but denied embezzlement and accepting bribes.
Yesterday’s proceedings focused on the embezzlement charge.
Wu said Chen Cheng-hui - formerly Chen Shui-bian’s chief accountant - was the one responsible for accounting for spending from the state funds. “She did all the accounting,” Wu told the Taipei court during cross-examination.
However, Chen Cheng-hui - who agreed to testify for the prosecution after being charged in connection with the case - said she had acted on the instructions of Wu and two former chief aides to Chen Shui-bian, Ma Yung-cheng and Lin Teh-hsun, in accounting for the spending. Chen Cheng-hui pleaded guilty to embezzlement, money-laundering and forgery charges in pretrial hearings but said she carried out her crimes on the instructions of Ma, Lin and Wu.
Ma “asked me to take care of the secret funding claim portion of the special state fund”, she said, and Wu “asked me to send the money, sometimes NT$10 million, to her at the presidential residence”.
Taiwan’s special state funds are divided into cash for public activities and funding for secret diplomatic missions. The former needs official receipts to account for spending claims, while the latter only requires the signature of the president or a responsible presidential aide.
Chen Cheng-hui said Ma, a co-defendant in the embezzlement case, had initially withdrawn the cash from the cashier and given it to her, but later told her to withdraw the money from the cashier herself using his official seal.
“Whenever the first lady said the president was running out of the special state funds, she asked me to send her the money, ranging from NT$1 million to NT$10 million, and each time I had sought approval from Ma Yung-cheng or Lin Teh-hsun before I delivered the funds to the first lady,” Chen Cheng-hui said.
Wu denied that she had taken the initiative in asking Chen Cheng-hui to move the money to the presidential residence.
“She told me there was not enough space in the safe in the Presidential Office to keep the funds,” Wu said.
She argued that although the money was kept in her safe at the presidential residence, she had clearly separated the funds from her personal money and not a single cent from the special state funds had been spent for private purposes.
Asked why she had asked her relatives and friends to wire the money abroad, she said it was to make it easier for her to make investments overseas and to “avoid profit tax”.
She said all the funds she had had wired abroad were “left over from my dowry and previous campaign donations, stock investment returns, and previous gains from the law firm” that Chen Shui-bian operated before he was elected to public office.
The trial continues tomorrow.
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