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Bankers found not
guilty of bribing Chen Shui-bian
By Rich Chang / Staff Reporter
Several bankers were found not guilty last week by the Taiwan High Court on
charges of offering bribes to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in relation
to a series of bank mergers.
A prosecutor yesterday said they might decide not to appeal the not-guilty
verdicts to the Supreme Court, which would result in the cases being dropped.
Chen was sentenced to 18 years in prison by the Taiwan High Court on Thursday
for taking bribes from bankers in relation to a series of bank mergers during
his eight years in office, fined NT$180 million (US$5.95 million) and stripped
of his civil rights for nine years.
His wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), was sentenced to 11 years and fined NT$102 million
in the same case and stripped of her civil rights for eight years.
The accused executives, including Yuanta Financial Holding Co founder Rudy Ma
(馬志玲), former China Development Financial Holding Corp president Angelo Koo
(辜仲瑩), Cathay Financial Holdings Co vice chairman Tsai Chen-yu (蔡鎮宇) and former
Mega Financial Holding Co chairman Cheng Sheng-chih (鄭深池) were also found not
guilty in the same ruling.
Only two executives were found guilty of helping the former first family to
launder money — former Yuanta Financial Holding president Victor Ma (馬維建) who
was sentenced to eight months in prison and granted two years probation, while
former Yuanta Securities Co board member Tu Li-ping (杜麗萍) was sentenced to two
months in prison and two years probation.
Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達), spokesman for the Special Investigation Division (SID) of
the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, yesterday said that according to the Speedy
Criminal Trials Act (刑事妥速審判法), which came into force last year, if defendants
are found not guilty in their first and second trials, prosecutors cannot appeal
those cases to the Supreme Court unless prosecutors discover the not-guilty
rulings are seriously flawed.
The prosecutor said that as the executives were found not guilty in their first
and second trails, an appeal to the Supreme Court would likely not be made.
SID prosecutors charged the defendants in December 2009, alleging that the
bankers had bribed the former president to pressure the Ministry of Finance to
approve mergers during financial reforms promoted by the Chen administration to
encourage greater consolidation in the banking sector.
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