Overseas money from past campaigns: Wu

Wu — a defendant in an ongoing money laundering probe that has seen her husband, former President Chen Shui-bian detained — made the claims while being questioned by prosecutors at her home, the lawyer, Lee Sheng-hsiung, said.

According to the lawyer, Wu said the friend, Tsai Ming-che, had offered to help raise campaign funds for former President Chen Shui-bian without being asked to do so.

Neither Wu nor Chen was aware of how he was raising the money, but now Tsai is blaming everything on the former first lady.

In one of the cases, Tsai told Su he had raised NT$90 million from Kuo Chuan-ching, president of the Rich Group, who is suspected to bribing former Interior Minister Yu Cheng-hsien in exchange for a contract to build Taipei’s Nankang Exhibition Hall.

But as the sum was raised after the 2004 presidential election was already over, Wu said he had Tsai transfer the money to the family’s overseas accounts.

Wu said she had only met Kuo once in a fundraising dinner, during which the businessman pledged support for Chen, who was then seeking reelection to the presidency.

She said she was surprised to learn from prosecutor’s revelations that actually Tsai received NT$100 million from Kuo, and pocketed NT$10 million.

In another case, she claimed that she was told that a certain person donated NT$400 million for Chen’s campaign, but they actually received only half of that sum.

“If it’s true that Tsai Ming-che took (bribe) money from other people, I would kill him,” Wu was cited by her lawyer as saying.

She stressed that she was only aware of the overseas accounts belonging to her son, daughter-in-law, and brother, and she claimed that she knew nothing about any other bank accounts.

She also denied that she interfered with the bidding process for the Nankang Exhibition Hall project.

She said the money was remitted overseas so that Chen could use in public affairs after retiring from the presidential office.

Prosecutors conducted the interrogation at the former first lady’s home because of the wheelchair-bound Wu’s poor health.

Lee said Wu, who faints often, was accompanied by a doctor and a nurse while being questioned by prosecutors.

At the start of the interrogation, Lee said, Wu was reluctant to answer questions, to show support of her husband, who has been staging a hunger strike in prison in protest of what he claims to be politically motivated charges against him.

Prosecutors questioned her son Chen Chih-chung and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching Friday, during which the couple signed papers authorizing prosecutors to look into their overseas accounts.

Swiss authorities have frozen US$21 million in their bank accounts in the country.

President Ma Ying-jeou yesterday urged his predecessor Chen Shui-bian and another local government chief, both charged with corruption, to stop their hunger strikes in jail.

“We hope they can resume eating, so that on the one hand they can take care of their own bodies, and on the other hand can have the strength to face future challenges,” said Ma during a radio interview.

Ma said prison officials have handled similar situations in the past, and they have standard procedures to deal with hunger strikes.

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