The Taipei District Court yesterday ordered the seizure of US$900 million worth of financial assets belonging to arms dealer Andrew Wang (汪傳浦) and his family in a case relating to the nation’s procurement of French-made Lafayette frigates in 1993, saying the money had been gained illegally.
Ministry of Justice (MOJ) officials said the confiscation order covers the financial assets of Wang; his wife, Yeh Hsiu-chen (葉秀貞); their three sons, Wang Jia-hsing (汪家興), Wang Jia-yung (汪家勇) and Wang Jia-ming (汪家明); and daughter, Wang Jun-ling (汪君玲).
Prosecutors on July 1 last year filed a request for the seizure.
Photo: CNA
The request followed an amendment to the Criminal Code that authorizes courts to expand the scope of confiscation orders on illicit profits, pertaining to financial gains through criminal means.
According to the amendment, the confiscation takes on an independent legal capacity as opposed to its previous status as a supplementary punishment, enabling the court to recover illicit gains without a principal penalty in place.
The prosecutors requested the seizure of the assets of the Wang family in compliance with the amendment, which allows the seizure of family members’ assets in cases where the defendant has fled abroad or failed to appear in court.
Investigators have found that the price for six Lafayette-class frigates was inflated to US$2.6 billion and the Wang family had transferred their illicit gains to 61 foreign bank accounts.
Ministry officials said they would make official requests to Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Isle of Man and the British Channel Island of Jersey to freeze the accounts of the Wang family and seek the money’s return to Taiwan.
The Wang family had also wired money to bank accounts in nine other countries, officials said.
However, Taiwan does not have mutual legal assistance pacts with those nations, or their judiciary systems have refused to cooperate with Taiwan on the case, so the court has not issued confiscation orders for money held in those nations, they said.
Andrew Wang, a Taiwanese agent for Thomson-CSF, the French contractor for the Lafayette warships, fled Taiwan on Dec. 20, 1993, after the body of navy captain Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓) was found in waters off Taiwan’s east coast on Dec. 9 that year.
Yin was reportedly a whistle-blower who had planned to report on the graft and money being siphoned off by numerous figures involved in the deal.
A fugitive on the run since 1993 and who is on Taiwan’s most-wanted list, Andrew Wang was reported to have died in the UK in February 2015 at the age of 86. However, some people believe he faked his death to avoid criminal prosecution.
Prosecutors in 2006 indicted Andrew Wang, seeking a life sentence for him, as well as a 16-year term for Yeh, and terms of between 11 and 14 years for his four children.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
RSS