The Egmont Group, an international anti-money laundering organization, and the Swiss authorities forwarded information to the Money Laundering Prevention Center of Taiwan's Investigation Bureau in January with detailed reports the status of foreign bank accounts created by members of Chen family in countries like the U.S., the Cayman Islands, Singapore and Switzerland.

Chen's wife claimed last week during questioning by prosecutors that the US$21 million deposited in the family's various overseas bank accounts was "all legal income."

Subpoena

The money is reportedly distributed among three different accounts -- two in Switzerland held in the name of Huang Jui-ching and one in Singapore in the name of her elder brother Wu Ching-mao.

Chen is already being investigated for allegedly embezzling NT$14.8 million in special "state affairs" expenses while serving as president, and his wife has been on trial for corruption and document forgery for using other people's invoices to claim the funds in the same case.

Both the junior Chen and his wife failed to appear as witnesses for a session on Aug. 15, one day before the former president's residence was searched.

After naming the couple as defendants, prosecutors of the special criminal investigation task force under the Supreme Prosecutor Office sent out a subpoena requiring them to report for questioning before Aug. 29.

But prosecutors said they welcome the couple to report to the team for an earlier questioning session after arrival if they show genuine intention for cooperation in the probe that has drawn wide attention both in Taiwan and abroad.

Meanwhile, the judicial officials said they will send a formal notice this week to Swiss authorities requesting the temporary freezing of the deposits of the Chen family pending a full investigation into the original sources of the funds.

1|2|3

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 1000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email