Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) apologized yesterday for failing to fully declare his past campaign funds and wiring a large sum overseas, but denied embezzling money from the government.
Chen said that all the money he had ever accepted was for election purposes, adding that his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), was responsible for managing his funds, including any amount left from previous campaigns.
Chen read from a written statement and did not take any questions during a press conference yesterday afternoon, leaving his attorney Richard Lee (李勝琛) to deal with the media after he left.
Chen said his conscience drove him to come out and apologize because he could no longer lie to himself or the public.
“I have done something that is not allowed by the law,” he said. “I owe the public an apology for falsely declaring my campaign funding for the past four Taipei mayoral and presidential elections.”
Chen ran for Taipei mayor in 1994 and won. While he lost his re-election bid in 1998, he moved on to win the presidential election in 2000 and 2004.
Chen said he did not know until earlier this year that Wu had wired some of the funds left from his previous campaigns overseas. After learning of the matter, Chen said he decided to use the money for “international diplomacy” and “other public purposes.”
Chen denied the money had anything to do with the president’s “state affairs fund,” saying he never intended to pocket the money nor did he do so. He added that the money was not tied to the money-losing Taiwan-US joint venture Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corp.
He also dismissed allegations that the money was related to the Papua New Guinea (PNG) scandal.
The scandal was exposed in early May when the Central News Agency reported that two brokers hired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) had absconded with NT$1 billion (US$32 million) of ministry cash to be given to the Pacific island country once it agreed to switch allegiance to Taipei.
Then-minister of foreign affairs James Huang (黃志芳) denied any direct involvement in the fund’s disappearance, arguing that the ministry was a victim of two con men. Huang and former National Security Council secretary-general Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), who admitted to introducing one of the brokers to Huang, were forced to resign over the mishap.
Chen yesterday called into question campaign funding declared by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長).
Chen said Ma and Siew claimed they had collected NT$670 million in political donations and still had NT$37 million in leftover funds.
“Do you believe that?” Chen asked. “I believe they have more and I am calling on the Special Investigation Section to look into it.”
Chen also cast doubt on the campaign funding declared by his election rivals in the previous two presidential elections. He said that while he and his running mate Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) declared NT$900 million during the 2000 presidential election, his election rivals — Lien Chan (連戰) and Siew — proclaimed they had NT$310 million.
In the 2004 presidential election, Chen said he and Lu reported NT$1.2 billion. The figure for Lien and James Soong (宋楚瑜) was NT$818 million.
Chen alleged that Soong wired NT$380 million overseas, while former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) used figureheads to transfer about US$1 billion abroad, adding that it was well-known that Lien has investments and property overseas.
Richard Lee said Chen deserved recognition for “courageously coming out” to admit his mistake, but that Chen did not break the law because the Political Contribution Act (政治獻金法) did not take effect until March 31, 2004.
Richard Lee said Chen did not know how much money was wired overseas and how it was done because Wu was in charge of it.
Lin Te-hsun (林德訓), Chen’s office director, said they asked Wu about the details, but she said she could not remember. Lin said they welcomed the judiciary to investigate the matter.
Lee said that Chen was baffled by KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) allegations about the funds and asked her to back up her claim.
Hung claimed earlier yesterday that she had sufficient evidence to prove that Chen’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) had laundered more than NT$900 million (US$30 million), which is now stashed in a Merrill Lynch bank branch in Switzerland.
“Both his son and Huang Jui-Ching are unemployed. How did they get so much money in their account?” she asked, while pointing out that the figure and the timing of the deposit coincided with the timeline of the PNG scandal.
The ministry said that the PNG funds were last traced to a bank in Singapore as Hung had pointed out, but it was not the same bank from which Huang Jui-ching’s Swiss account received the questionable sum.
Hung claimed that Merrill Lynch alerted Swiss federal authorities on the account discrepancies.
The authorities then contacted Taiwan’s Swiss representative office to request help on establishing contact with Taiwanese authorities.
MOFA Spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) yesterday confirmed that the ministry did receive the request about one month ago but said that the ministry was merely acting as a middleman in the matter.
“The ministry has no comment on the case,” he said. “Our only role was to relay the message from the Swiss authority to the Taiwanese judiciary system as requested by the Swiss.”
KMT spokeswoman Chen Shu-rong (陳淑容) yesterday urged Chen Shui-bian not to shift all the responsibility to his wife.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU AND MO YAN-CHIH
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