Former first son doesn't want to return the money

But on August 14 last year when the money laundering came to light, President Chen apologized to the public for “doing what the law forbids him to do.” He, his wife and their son are standing trial for corruption and money laundering.

The Special Counsel, fooled into believing the president's law school-trained heir would get the stashed fund at the Wegelin Bank in Zurich back, treated him like a VIP in distress.

In the end, however, the Taipei District Court convicted the son of money laundering and sentenced him to two years in prison on September 11. His wife Huang Jui-ching was convicted along with him, but a lighter punishment was meted out. She was given a term of one year eight months to serve, but her sentence could be suspended for two years if she paid a fine of NT$200 million.

But the fact is that the younger Chen never even tried to get the laundered money back to the national treasury as he had promised.

The lie was bared by Flco Galli, Swiss Federal Office of Justice spokesman. Galli told the official Central News Agency on Saturday Chen Chih-chung never wrote the Swiss Attorney General asking for permission to hand over his frozen stashed money in the Wegelin Bank and another NT$570 million (US$17.5 million) in the Merril Lynch Bank also in Zurich.

The Swiss authorities cannot hand over the frozen assets unless the defendant is finally convicted by a court of law. Galli said the two bank accounts were frozen, albeit the Special Counsel still believes otherwise.

All what the Special Counsel can do now is to wait until Chen Chih-chung's case is closed. That may take years. He would appeal again and again in many years to come.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email