Wu Shih-tsai (吳思材), a key suspect in the Papua New Guinea diplomatic fraud scandal, will be indicted soon, Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office Spokesman Lin Jinn-tsun (林錦村) said yesterday.
“Prosecutors still need some time to figure out where the stolen money — NT$1 billion [US$33 million] — is. But we will wrap up our investigation and indict Wu in the near future,” Lin said.
Lin said Chief Prosecutor Huang Mo-hsin (黃謀信), who is in charge of the investigation, had received a report from Singaporean prosecutors who investigated eight bank accounts belonging to Ching Chi-ju (金紀玖), the other main suspect. Singaporean prosecutors said they had found no evidence that any money from the eight accounts had been wired to Taiwanese officials.
The Singaporean report said that a total of US$19.8 million was deposited in the accounts and that Ching wired money from the accounts to Taiwan to buy real estate, cars and other investments, but he had never wired money to any Taiwanese officials.
Lin said prosecutors are also trying to determine if the case was linked to the money-laundering scandal enveloping former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
The fraud case surfaced in May when a Singaporean newspaper reported that the Singapore High Court had approved Taiwan’s application for an injunction to freeze a joint bank account held by Ching and Wu.
In August 2006, the 56-year-old Wu, a Singaporean, and Ching were commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then-National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) to act as intermediaries in an attempt to forge diplomatic relations with Papua New Guinea.
The ministry later agreed to wire US$30 million into Wu and Ching’s account at the OCBC Bank in Singapore to be transferred to the Papua New Guinea government after both countries had signed a diplomatic communique.
However, the two countries failed to form official ties and in December 2006 the ministry asked for its money back. Ching allegedly refused to return the funds and has since disappeared.
Chiou, former minister of foreign affairs James Huang (黃志芳) and former deputy minister of national defense Ko Cheng-heng (柯承亨) all resigned over their involvement in the plan.
Ching, who is a US citizen, is believed to be in the US, while Wu is in custody in Taiwan.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
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