Former Investigation Bureau chief Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂) said yesterday he gave former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) information from an international anti-money laundering group about a probe into Chen’s overseas bank accounts.
Yeh was indicted on Thursday for allegedly covering up for Chen by withholding critical information about foreign bank accounts used by Chen’s family members, including his son and his daughter-in-law.
With his defense counsel Tu Ying-ta (杜英達) by his side, Yeh began a press conference yesterday with a bow.
PHOTO: CNA
“I am sorry for creating chaos,” Yeh said. “Honesty is the best policy. So I am here to tell you what happened.”
Yeh said he gave Chen the information from the Egmont Group regarding bank accounts owned by Chen’s family members in the Cayman Islands during a regular monthly meeting with Chen.
The prosecutors’ search of Yeh’s home on Aug. 21 yielded only a photocopy of that information.
Yeh said Egmont gave the information to the Investigation Bureau on Jan. 29, two months before the March 22 presidential election.
He said he gave the information to Chen because he was concerned about the political impact the material would have on the election.
“As the president of the country, he must have his own way and process to use his money,” Yeh said.
Chen told him that he would deal with the matter, Yeh said.
The former president had also asked to meet Yeh, who retired on July 16, on Aug. 14, although that meeting was later pushed back a day to Aug. 15, Yeh said.
Yeh said he had asked Chen about the Egmont data at the August meeting, and Chen replied: “I misplaced it.”
However, Yeh emphasized that he had told Prosecutor General Chen Tsung-min (陳聰明) about the Egmont report on the sidelines of a government meeting sometime in February, a claim denied by Chen Tsung-min.
Yeh said Chen Tsung-ming told him to keep probing if there was not enough evidence to make an ironclad case against the president.
In 2006 Egmont gave Yeh’s office information about a bank account opened by members of the former first family on Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, and Yeh said he passed on that information to Chen Shui-bian.
But he said that information was more in the form of financial intelligence than an official letter to that said “there were no funds in that account when the information was sent to us.”
Yeh denied his talks with the former president might have broken the law, saying that what he had passed on was “intelligence,” not “evidence of crime.”
“I just did what a chief of the Investigation Bureau is supposed to do — pass intelligence to the head of state,” he said.
Chen Shui-bian’s office issued a statement later yesterday saying the former president had received the two “pieces of intelligence” Yeh mentioned, but that he had not concealed them.
Chen Shui-bian received all kinds of intelligence during his presidency for reference purposes, the statement said. The two pieces of intelligence cited by Yeh fell into that category, the statement said, adding that they were not “documents” presented to him via “normal channels.”
It was up to Chen Shui-bian to decide what to do with information he received outside of “normal channels” and there was no such thing as hiding them, the statement said.
Chen Shui-bian had confronted his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), about money frozen in overseas accounts after Yeh passed along the information earlier this year, the statement said. Wu then confirmed for the first time that she had taken the liberty of wiring some of his leftover campaign funds overseas, the statement said.
The office said the money came from surplus election funds and that the former president had not embezzled or laundered any money.
Meanwhile, Chen Tsung-ming denied yesterday that Yeh had told him about the Egmont data.
“Unlike what he claims, he never reported anything to me. It’s not true,” Chen Tsung-ming said. “I was quite surprised to hear him say he gave the information to Chen Shui-bian.”
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