Yeh tipped Chen on probe

Yeh, who was indicted last week for withholding important information concerning possible crimes, made the public acknowledgement at a news conference yesterday.

He stressed that during a regular monthly meeting with Chen, he personally handed Chen the information from global anti-money laundering association Egmont Group regarding bank accounts owned by Chen's family members on the Cayman Island in the Caribbean.

Yeh's revelation during an ongoing investigation into possible money-laundering by the former first family would explain why a search of Yeh's home on Aug. 21 yielded only a photocopy of that information, with the original copy unaccounted for.

Yeh said Egmont forwarded the information to the MJIB on Jan. 29, two months before the March 22 presidential election.

Yeh said he decided to submit the information to Chen because he was concerned about the political impact the information would have on the election, in which Frank Hsieh from Chen's Democratic Progressive Party was engaged in an uphill battle against the opposition Kuomintang's candidate Ma Ying-jeou, who later won.

"As the nation's president at that time, he must have his own way and process of using his money," Yeh said.

Yeh said he believed that Chen, who was still the national leader at that time, knew better than him how to handle this sensitive issue after learning that a foreign financial intelligence unit had taken note of transfers of his private funds.

After receiving the information, Chen told Yeh, "I'll deal with the matter," Yeh quoted Chen as saying.

Chen, who stepped down on May 20 after two four-year terms, invited Yeh, who already retired from the Investigation Bureau on July 16, for a meeting on Aug. 14, which was later postponed to the next day, Yeh said.

On Aug. 14, Chen told the nation that his wife had deposited his unused election campaign funds in overseas bank counts.

'Missing'

During that meeting, Yeh said, he had asked about the whereabouts of the original copies of the information, and was told by Chen that "they were missing."

However, Yeh denied that he might have broken the law by forewarning Chen of an investigation into his alleged "money-laundering" in a tipoff.

He argued that what he passed on to Chen was "intelligence" rather than "evidence of crime."

"I am just doing what a chief of the Investigation Bureau is supposed to do by passing intelligence to head of the state." Yeh said.

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