Several former top financial officials have been questioned by prosecutors as witnesses to alleged irregularities in some of the bank mergers during former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) second term, prosecutors said yesterday.
The Supreme Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP) said on Wednesday that former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) had given a list to prosecutors that detailed political donations totaling NT$1.21 billion (US$35 million) offered by 20 businesspeople to former president Chen.
SIP Spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) said prosecutors suspected some of the donations from bank owners might be related to the bank mergers program, and prosecutors had interviewed former high-level financial officers to better understand the matter.
Chen Yun-nan said prosecutors questioned former Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) chairman Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正) and former National Security Council consultant Chen Yung-cheng (陳永誠) as witnesses yesterday, while Central Bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) asked for a postponement because he needed to go to the legislature.
Prosecutors interviewed former vice premier Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) and former minister of finance Lin Chuan (林全) as witnesses on Thursday, Chen Yun-nan said.
The five were responsible for the banking restructuring program in 2005, Chen Yun-nan said. He did not reveal the content of the interviews.
The prosecutors are still investigating allegations that the former president and his wife received bribes from several banks in exchange for favors during the former president’s second financial reform program.
The former first couple were indicted for embezzling NT$104 million from the president’s special discretionary fund during his presidency from 2000 to last year. They also are accused of taking bribes of NT$300 million in connection with a land procurement deal and another NT$90.93 million in kickbacks to help a contractor win the tender for a government construction project.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: China continues to build up its military capacity while regularly deploying jets and warships around Taiwan, with the latest balloon spotted on Sunday The US is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of a Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. They would be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, Kyodo reported late on Sunday, citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations. A US Marine Corps regiment that possesses High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — a light multiple rocket launcher — would be deployed along the Nansei Island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said. According to US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations,
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
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