Lawmaker claims Chen laundered funds in Palau

Chen paid a state visit to Koror from Sept. 3 to 6, 2006. He flew there aboard Air Force One, which returned to Taipei without him. He later took a commercial flight to return to Taipei.

At least NT$170 million (US$5.17 million) was aboard the presidential jet, the expose expert legislator said. The plane took off from Songshan Air Force Base, where no luggage was checked.

Chiu, who exposed the misuse of President Chen’s state affairs fund, charged the money was laundered at a branch office of the First Commercial Bank of Taiwan in Koror.

First Commercial denied the charges. “But,” a bank spokesman said, “we are trying to find out if the former president or his wife had accounts opened under other people’s names.”

Wu Shu-chen, the former first lady, is standing trial for corruption, and is charged with borrowing receipts from friends and relatives to claim NT$14.8 million in reimbursement from her husband’s state affairs fund.

She was indicted in November 2006. Her husband wasn’t indicted along with her, for he was immune to prosecution, but was regarded as an unindicted co-defendant who would be formally charged upon leaving office.

He was arrested on charges of forgery, corruption and money laundering on Nov. 12 and has since been held incommunicado at the Taipei detention house in Tucheng.

In a scoop, the United Evening News reported yesterday a “top Palau government official” made a private visit to Taipei not long ago to tell the story of President Chen’s money laundering.

No official announcement of the visit was made. “However,” the afternoon paper said, “reports on President Chen’s carrying the cash to Palau started circulating shortly after the official left Taipei for home.”

The official also revealed in Taipei that President Chen gave “money” to a retired Palau government executive, who might have known of the money laundering, the paper added.

Taiwan gave massive financial assistance to Palau, a small island republic in the Pacific east of Luzon. The previous government under President Chen backed the presidential candidate who lost the recent election, the United Evening News said.

In a statement, the office of the former president denied the money laundering in Palau.

“It’s impossible to have Air Force One carry the cash,” the statement said.

But President Chen demands the Special Counsel make clarification at once, the statement said. “Prosecutors of the Special Counsel (who are investigating Chen) must make clear whether President Chen carried the cash aboard Air Force One to Palau,” it urged.

The ex-president would sue Sisy Chen, a talk show hostess, if she did not explain in full why she hinted at his money laundering in Palau, the statement threatened.

Sisy Chen wrote in her Apple Daily column of November 29 the former president used Air Force One while Shih Ming-teh’s Redshirts were demanding he step down and the Special Counsel suspects he might have “smuggled American dollars.”

Shih, a former Democratic Progressive Party chairman, led his March of One Million to besiege the Office of the President on October 10, 2006. He wanted to topple the president, who was involved in a spate of corruption scandals.

“She should make clear which prosecutor raised suspicion, as well as when, where and how it was raised and how she came to know,” the statement continued.

“If she cannot make all this clear,” the statement warned, “we do not rule out possibilities of initiating litigation against her at once.”

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