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Victor Ma testifies to holding US$23
million in cash for Chen Shui-bian
STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Friday, Jun 18, 2010, Page 3
Former first lady Wu Shu-jen waves to supporters as she
leaves the Taipei District Court yesterday after a hearing about the corruption
scandal involving her and her husband, former president Chen Shui-bian.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Former Yuanta Financial Holding president Victor Ma (°¨ºû«Ø) said at a court
hearing yesterday that he kept NT$740 million (US$23 million) for former
president Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó) ¡§out of sympathy¡¨ for Chen.
Ma was indicted on Dec. 24 last year, along with 22 others, for helping Chen
conceal funds accumulated through corruption.
Ma told the Taipei District Court that Chen¡¦s wife, Wu Shu-jen (§d²Q¬Ã), asked her
brother Wu Ching-mao (§d´ºZ) and Tu Li-ping (§ùÄRµÓ), a former director of the board
of Yuanta, to carry seven or eight trunks to his Taipei home one day in 2006 and
asked him to keep the trunks in his basement vault.
Ma said he asked Wu Ching-mao, whom he did not know, what was in the trunks, to
which the latter responded ¡§cash.¡¨
Ma said that when he hesitated, Wu Ching-mao pleaded with him, saying that the
money was to provide for Chen¡¦s living expenses after retirement.
Ma said he agreed to keep the trunks and confirmed with Wu Ching-mao that they
contained NT$740 million.
Ma told the court that he asked Tu the next day ¡§why she had put me to such
trouble,¡¨ Tu told him that she thought the trunks contained documents about
Taiwanese independence because Wu Shu-jen told her there were secret documents
in them.
¡§Tu was glad she thought she was doing something to help the cause of Taiwan
independence,¡¨ Ma told the court.
Also yesterday, the Supreme Prosecutors¡¦ Office¡¦s Special Investigation Panel
(SIP) announced that another US$1 million in funds stashed by Chen¡¦s family in
banks in Switzerland had been wired back to Taiwan.
The latest remittance brought to US$13.51 million the Chen¡¦s family has wired
from Switzerland to Taiwan, with a further US$7 million left in two Swiss bank
accounts.
The SIP, which is leading the probe into the alleged corruption, believes the
money was illegally obtained by Chen and is seeking to confiscate it.
The former president and his wife were sentenced to 20 years in jail for
corruption by the Taiwan High Court in another case.
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