Former first lady Tseng Wen-hui (曾文惠) is innocent of charges that she fled to the US with millions of dollars in cash following the presidential election last year, according to the former bureau director of the Investigation Bureau.
Wang Kuang-yu (王光宇) said that the bureau's investigations found that there was no truth to the charges and that the bureau had closed the case.
Wang's appearance at the Taipei District Court was the first time in history that the investigation bureau chief was asked to testify in a case which is under the bureau's investigation.
Wang said the bureau had launched investigations after reports that New Party legislators Hsieh Chi-ta (謝啟大) and Elmer Feng (馮滬祥), as well as Tai Chi (戴錡), a New Party member of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission, claimed that Tseng had fled to the US with US$85 million in cash. The reports also stated that the lawmakers alleged that Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) wife hid the money and other valuables in a suitcase when she left the country shortly after the presidential election on March 18 last year.
Hsieh accused Lee of making his wife take the amount to the US soon after the KMT's defeat in the presidential election. Angry protesters demonstrated against Lee in front of the KMT headquarters on March 19.
The reports also said that the money was returned by US customs officials because it exceeded the amount of money that can be taken into the US.
The former bureau chief said that, during the period, there were four remissions of US dollars to Taiwan, but the investigation found that the US currency was purchased by the Bank of America.
The vice chairman of the Bank of America, Liu Mao-fang (劉懋芳) and manager Su Yi-ling (蘇宜玲) also testified at the hearing.
Wang said that, as he was present at the court as an ordinary citizen, he therefore did not have any official documents to prove his testimony. He said that the bureau considered the case closed after the charges proved to be ungrounded.
On July 27 last year, Lee's wife asked for NT$300 million in damages from Fung and Hsieh for what she said were disparaging remarks on her character by the lawmakers.
Feng is currently on trial for allegedly defaming the former first lady. A counter-suit accuses Tseng of bringing false charges against Feng.
Feng held a press conference on March 23 last year, during which he had a telephone discussion with Tai Chi, who was in the US and claimed to have evidence about Tseng's alleged plan to fly to the US with suitcases of money.
Both Feng and Hsieh attended the hearing yesterday.
The judge said the next hearing is scheduled to be on March 4 of next year.
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 —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS