The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday it would probe reports that Singapore provided information about suspected money-laundering by members of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) family as early as last year.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) made the remarks after the Chinese-language China Times reported that Singapore contacted Taiwan about the matter in March last year.
Former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) allegedly transferred money to a Singapore bank account in her brother Wu Ching-mao’s (吳景茂) name last year after Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘), Chen’s son-in-law, was indicted for insider trading in a corruption scandal in 2006.
Wu Ching-mao reportedly then closed his account and transferred the money to a Swiss bank account under the name of Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚), Chen Shui-bian’s daughter-in-law.
Ou said the ministry had only received a request for judicial assistance from Switzerland last month.
Asked whether some officials may have withheld information about the case, Ou said “the ministry will be able to track it down if there were files.”
Vice Foreign Affairs Minister Javier Hou (侯清山) said the ministry would launch an investigation into the matter.
Meanwhile, a Taiwanese official stationed in Singapore yesterday said that the representative office had not received any information on the accounts of Chen or his family members and had not been contacted by the government of Singapore on the matter.
The official also said the representative office had not been contacted either when Taiwanese investigators went to Singapore to probe the Papua New Guinea scandal.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is