Prosecutors questioned former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) yesterday in a corruption probe, days after Chen was detained in connection with the same case.
The Supreme Prosecutor Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP) prosecutors Chu Chao-liang (朱朝亮), Lin Cher-hui and Lee Hai-lung (李海龍) led a team of four assistant prosecutors, one physician and two nurses to visit Wu and her daughter Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤) at their residence at 10am. They left the location at around 1:50pm.
The wheelchair-bound Wu was questioned at her home instead of the prosecutor’s office because of her frail condition, they said.
Wu was interrogated on suspicion of money laundering, having previously been indicted for graft and forgery over the alleged embezzlement of around NT$15 million (US$450,000) during Chen Shui-bian’s term, a case that also implicated the former president.
Chen Shui-bian has admitted to submitting falsified expense forms to claim state funds but said the money was used for “secret diplomatic missions,” not for his personal benefit. He has also said that his wife wired US$20 million abroad from past campaign funds, while denying that he laundered money.
During yesterday’s questioning, Wu maintained that the family’s overseas funds came from campaign donations, her lawyer Lee Sheng-hsiung (李勝雄) said.
“She said she was not a civil servant and could not interfere in government affairs,” Lee said, rejecting allegations that Wu had accepted money in return for political favors.
Taiwan Cement Corp (台泥) chairman Leslie Koo (辜成允) said on Friday that he had given a “commission” of NT$400 million to the Chen family in exchange for the government purchase of his land. Koo said that two of Wu’s acquaintances, Tsai Ming-chieh (蔡銘杰) and Tsai Ming-che (蔡銘哲), told him there would be a NT$400 million “commission” if the sale were successful.
As to a statement by Tsai Ming-cher that he had received NT$100 million and NT$420 million on Wu’s behalf from two prominent business tycoons in 2003, Lee quoted Wu as saying that she had only received NT$90 million and NT$200 million in political contributions from the two businessmen.
Wu told prosecutors that neither she nor her husband knew who the contributors were until newspapers disclosed recently that they were Leslie Koo and Chinatrust Financial Holding Co vice chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒).
Lee quoted Wu as denying that she had ever asked Tsai to handle business for her or retained Tsai Ming-che as her aide, and swearing to kill Tsai if “he dared to demand money from others in my name.”
In February 2004, the National Science Council bought the land to build an industrial park. Koo said he then wired the NT$400 million to an account number given to him by Tsai Ming-cher.
The Taipei District Court ordered Chen Shui-bian to be locked up on Wednesday.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIMMY CHUANG AND CNA
Also See: Group protests former president’s detention
Also See: Ma calls on detainees to start eating
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat