Ex-president's son pleads guilty

They also made apologies to the public and agreed to surrender the money deposited abroad to prosecutors or donate the funds to charity.

The sum deposited at bank accounts overseas or under other people's names in Taiwan is estimated at NT$1.8 billion.

The three appeared in court for the pre-trial hearing to answer questions concerning the questionable handling of huge funds by various members of the former first family.

Chen's son, Chen Chih-chung, and his wife Huang Jui-ching acted as proxies and nominal holders of the former first family's controversial overseas bank accounts.

Wu Ching-mao, a brother of the former president's wife Wu Shu-chen, also played a similar role of helping her sister wire funds abroad.

When answering questions in court, Chen Chih-chung said he would plead guilty on the money-laundering charge.

Chen said he had previously mainly taken instructions from his mother.

He expressed regret that he was unable to distinguish money-laundering operations from financial investments.

He pledged full cooperation in helping remit the funds back to Taiwan with the promise of letting prosecutors handle the funds.

But for the legitimate funds, Chen said his family is willing to donate all of it to charities.

When questioned by reporters, his wife Huang said Chen had already made statements for both of them.

But she asked for forgiveness from her father-in-law (former President Chen) and mother-in-law.

She also urged a certain weekly to stop reporting matters related to her and her own family.

Wu advised his sister -- former first lady Wu Shu-chen -- to honestly face justice and admit mistakes to put an end to social unrest stirred up by controversy surrounding her family's finances.

The Taipei District Court will subpoena the former first lady Feb. 10-11 as part of a series of pretrial hearings on the former first family's embezzlement and money-laundering charges.

Judge Tsai Shou-shun said yesterday he could feel Chen Chih-chung's sincerity when pleading guilty.

He asked the junior Chen to accompany his mother and take good care of her when she appears in court after the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays.

Former President Chen and his wife were indicted last December on charges of embezzling NT$104 million from a special presidential fund.

They were also accused of accepting bribes worth NT$100 million and US$6 million in connection with a land procurement deal, and another US$2.73 million in kickbacks to help a contractor win the bid for a government construction project.

Moreover, they were charged with laundering part of the funds by wiring the money to overseas bank accounts through a series of proxies.

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