Yuanta board member delivered cash to Wu

Tu was granted bail after being questioned in a probe into ex-President Chen Shui-bian and his family over a series of alleged money laundering and corruption cases, which include the Yuanta group’s acquisition of Fu-Hwa Financial Holding.

During the questioning, Tu divulged that she had accompanied a certain Yuanta official to deliver NT$200 million to Wu at the presidential residence in 2005, according to Tan. Yuanta at the time was acquiring Fu-Hwa shares on the open market, and her group simply hoped that the government could maintain an impartial stance to allow the market mechanism to operate freely, Tan cited Tu as telling prosecutors.

Tu stressed that the money was not meant to be a bribe, the lawyer said. Tu did not explain the exact nature of the money, or identify the person whom went to Wu’s residence with Tu. Other reports said the cash was inside a fruit carton when delivered to Wu, who was said to be a personal friend of Tu’s.

Prosecutors declined to comment on some reports that claimed Tu was assigned by Yuanta Financial Holdings Chairman Ma Chih-ling to deliver the cash to Wu. According to the reports, Tu also disclosed another scenario where the former first lady had her brother Wu Ching-mao transport a few suitcases of cash, totaling NT$740 million, to Yuanta in 2006.

It was the time when anti-Chen protesters were staging massive demonstrations trying to oust him from the presidency for alleged corruption. The reports said the former first lady asked Tu to pick up the brother at a bank. The brother loaded a few suitcases into Tu’s car and both then left for Yuanta’s office. The suitcases were then opened to reveal the cash. The ex-first lady later instructed that Yuanta help her make overseas investment with the money.

Tu’s lawyer cited the Yuanta board member as telling prosecutors that she was surprised to find that the suitcases were packed with large sums of cash. Tu insisted that she was merely a “driver” without knowing what she was transporting, the lawyer said.

Yuanta responded by saying that it had checked all of the records, but there was no indication of the company handling such a sum of NT$740 million in 2006, the United Evening News reported.

Prosecutors started questioning Tu on Thursday, and sought to have her detained yesterday. The Taipei District Court rejected the prosecutors’ request for her detention, and released her on NT$1 million bail. The court argued that despite being a suspect of corruption, she was unlikely to collude with other parties in the case to give false testimony. The court added prosecutors had already made many searches of her offices and other relevant locations related to the case.

Meanwhile, the former first lady’s brother, who had been detained since last month, was set free after posting NT$2 million bail.

Wu Ching-mao is a suspect in connection with prosecutors’ probe into alleged money laundering by Chen and his family.

Prosecutors said it was unnecessary to keep Wu in custody as other witnesses and suspects had been questioned many times, and Wu had also made confessions concerning some of parts of the case.

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

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email