The Special Investigation Panel (SIP) of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office said yesterday it would investigate former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) on suspicion of money laundering.
“We will look into the allegation brought against Lee,” SIP spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) told reporters.
When asked if former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was the accuser as some local media had reported, the prosecutor said “yes.”
Chen Yun-nan said that Chen Shui-bian provided information on Lee’s alleged money laundering during the investigation. He did not elaborate on the details of the charges.
At a separate setting yesterday, the Taiwan Solidarity Union Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) slammed Chen Shui-bian for blurring the focus of the case by allegedly accusing Lee — the party’s spiritual leader.
“Lee has always welcomed the prosecutors to launch a probe [into his financial dealings]. Everyone knows Chen [Shui-bian’s] only tactic left is to blur the focus. I am 200 percent confident in Lee’s integrity,” Lin said.
Later yesterday however, one of Chen Shui-bian’s defense attorneys, Shih Yi-lin (石宜琳), said his client never filed any complaints with the prosecutors against Lee. Chen Shui-bian had nothing to do with the probe into Lee’s financial dealings, Shih said.
“It is one big misunderstanding. My client never provided any information regarding [former] president Lee on his own initiative or when asked by the prosecutors,” said Shih, adding that he speculated the rumor was probably started by some “opportunistic politicians.”
Chen Shui-bian was indicted on Dec. 12 on graft charges for allegedly embezzling NT$104 million (US$3.14 million) from a special presidential fund together with his wife. Several former senior officials from his administration are also under investigation for corruption.
He has previously alleged on television that his predecessor transferred around NT$1.6 billion abroad through dummy accounts — charges Lee rejected.
Hailed as “Mr Democracy,” Lee pushed through reforms to allow direct elections of the president and national lawmakers. He was also Taiwan’s first democratically elected president. Lee served as Taiwan’s president from 1988 to 2000, when he was succeeded by Chen Shui-bian.
‘DANGEROUS GAME’: Legislative Yuan budget cuts have already become a point of discussion for Democrats and Republicans in Washington, Elbridge Colby said Taiwan’s fall to China “would be a disaster for American interests” and Taipei must raise defense spending to deter Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Pentagon policy, Elbridge Colby, said on Tuesday during his US Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee for US undersecretary of defense for policy told the Armed Services Committee that Washington needs to motivate Taiwan to avoid a conflict with China and that he is “profoundly disturbed” about its perceived reluctance to raise defense spending closer to 10 percent of GDP. Colby, a China hawk who also served in the Pentagon in Trump’s first team,
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
RSS