Former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) was listed as a defendant and subsequently detained yesterday by prosecutors investigating alleged money laundering by the former first family.
This was the sixth time that prosecutors from the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) summoned Ma for questioning since the investigation was launched.
SIP spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) said prosecutors alleged that Ma had helped former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) pocket part of his “state affairs” fund through fake receipts, allowing the former first family to wire money to foreign bank accounts.
Chen Shui-bian said on Aug. 14 that his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), had told him in January that she had wired US$21 million to foreign bank accounts without his knowledge. The money was later frozen by Swiss judicial authorities, who suspected it might have been part of a money-laundering scheme, as the funds were being transferred to Swiss bank accounts belonging to Chen’s son and daughter-in-law from Singapore to the Cayman Islands.
The former president, his wife, son, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law and several others have been named defendants in the investigation.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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