Taiwan will continue efforts to track down nearly US$30 million that was allegedly stolen by two diplomatic brokers three years ago, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said on Sunday.
Local prosecutors said they have maintained contact with their counterparts in Singapore and the US in a bid to recover the US$29.8 million (NT$965 million) that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) wired to a Singapore bank account on Sept. 15, 2006, ostensibly to facilitate the establishment of diplomatic ties with Papua New Guinea.
The money was remitted to an account at Singapore’s OCBC Bank jointly held by the two brokers, Wu Shih-tsai (吳思材), a Singaporean national, and his partner, Ching Chi-ju (金紀玖), a Taiwanese with a US passport who was commissioned by the ministry in 2006 to help facilitate the deal.
The ministry asked Wu and Ching for a statement of the account early last year after discovering that by Dec. 1, 2006, all the money in the joint account had disappeared without any progress being made with Papua New Guinea.
Wu, without knowing that the ministry was aware of the fraud, produced a false bank statement on a notebook computer and gave it to the ministry.
He was taken into custody by prosecutors in May last year and indicted for forging the bank statement and lying to the police after he made up a story about being threatened by an unidentified gunman. He was found guilty of the charges a month later and sentenced to 28 months in prison.
Prosecutors said NT$300 million in bank accounts held by Wu and Ching and property Wu bought in Taipei City had been frozen. Some NT$70 million of the assets were in Wu’s name.
The Singapore High Court ruled on Saturday that the S$2.1 million (US$1.49 million) that had been in another of Wu’s accounts at OCBC Bank be returned to the Taiwanese authorities.
Meanwhile, Taipei prosecutors listed Ching, who is said to be living in California, as one of Taiwan’s most wanted fugitives last May as they continued their investigation into the case.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said it had asked for judicial assistance from the US government and suggested that US prosecutors question Ching on Taiwan’s behalf or allow Taiwanese prosecutors to travel to California to question Ching.
They have yet to receive a response from the US government.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
Many Chinese spouses required to submit proof of having renounced their Chinese household registration have either completed the process or provided affidavits ahead of the June 30 deadline, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. Of the 12,146 people required to submit the proof, 5,534 had done so as of Wednesday, MAC deputy head and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. Another 2,572 people who met conditions for exemption or deferral from submitting proof of deregistration — such as those with serious illnesses or injuries — have submitted affidavits instead, he said. “As long as individuals are willing to cooperate with the legal
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
The Ministry of Environment yesterday held a seminar in Taipei for experts from Taiwan and Japan to exchange their experiences on the designs and development of public toilets. Japan Toilet Association chairman Kohei Yamamoto said that he was impressed with the eco-toilet set up at Daan Forest Park, adding that Japan still faces issues regarding public restrooms despite the progress it made over the past decades. For example, an all-gender toilet was set up in Kabukicho in Tokyo’s Shinjuku District several years ago, but it caused a public backlash and was rebuilt into traditional men’s and women’s toilets, he said. Japan Toilet Association
RSS