Liu Kuan-chun (劉冠軍), former chief of the payments section of the National Security Bureau (NSB), and his wife Meng Wen-hua (孟雯華), who are on the run after being accused of having embezzled NT$190 million (US$6 million) from secret bureau funds were yesterday ordered to repay the funds by the Taipei District Court.
The NSB sued the couple for NT$60 million in order to regain some of its losses and the court yesterday handed down a judgment ordering the two to return the NT$60 million plus interest accumulated from 2002 until the debt is paid off.
The case can be appealed again.
The verdict states that Liu’s position had put him in control of NT$30 billion related to several large projects. The funds were kept in time deposit bank accounts and Liu used his position to understate the interest received and saved it in a private time deposit account, thus embezzling NT$192,207,000.
The NSB claims that Liu used more than NT$38 million to buy a Taipei house in his wife’s name, and that the rest was invested in US dollar travelers checks, shares and personal spending.
Liu, who left Taiwan with his wife in 2000, is one of the nation’s top ten most wanted criminals. The Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau traced Liu to Bangkok in January 2002 and then he went to North America.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
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