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PROSECUTORS RETURN FROM GENEVA WITH FILES ON LAFAYETTE SCANDAL

ROC Central News Agency

2005-11-15 00:20:50

    Taipei, Nov. 14 (CNA) Two Taiwan prosecutors who traveled to Geneva early this month have returned home with a large number of court files believed to be related to a kickback scandal involving Taiwan's procurement of six Lafayette-class frigates from France in 1991, an official said Monday.

    State Public Prosecutor-General Wu Ying-chao announced the return of the two prosecutors -- Tsai chiu-ming and Lo Jung-chien -- in response to an inquiry by opposition Kuomintang Legislator Lee Ching-hua during a legislative session.

    For safety reasons, the two prosecutors' itinerary had been kept confidential.

    Wu said the duo brought back six cases of Swiss judicial files, including 46 bank accounts under the names of Andrew Wang, the key suspect in the kickback scandal, his three sons and Wang's company, all of which have been frozen by the Swiss Federal Court.

    The files also include a number of previously unexposed overseas bank accounts related to the US$2.8 billion Lafayette deal, as well as information about relevant capital flow in Switzerland, Wu said, adding that the Swiss court files clearly document deposit times and destinations of the capital flow. "Because of the enormous size of the files, it will take time for the investigation panel to complete filtering of the documents, " Wu said.

    According to Wu, the files do not include slush funds that Wang had remitted to other countries before the Swiss court froze his accounts. As a result, he said, it remains unclear whether the files will lead to any major breakthroughs in the grueling investigation into the high-profile corruption scandal.

    The handover of the Swiss bank files marked the first judicial aid case between Taiwan and Switzerland, Wu said.

    Wang was the agent in Taiwan of Thomson-CSF, the French company that sold the frigates to Taiwan. Thomsom-CSF is now called Thales.

    Wang fled Taiwan following the death of Navy Captain Yin Ching-feng, who was widely believed to have been murdered when he was about to blow the whistle on colleagues for allegedly taking kickbacks in the deal.

    Wang has been charged with murder, corruption, money laundering and fraud. The frigates had all been delivered to Taiwan by the mid-1990s, and both Switzerland and Liechtenstein have frozen funds in Wang's and his son's accounts that are allegedly linked to the case.

    The investigations began when the Taiwanese authorities concluded from the inflated price that the Lafayette deal constituted a serious case of international corruption.

    France, Liechtenstein and Taiwan, investigating whether the case had violated their laws, asked the Swiss authorities to hand over the bank documents to facilitate their investigations.

    According to media reports, some US$500 million remains frozen in 46 accounts with different banks in Switzerland as part of a Swiss investigation into alleged money laundering linked to the case. Authorities in neighboring Liechtenstein have frozen around US$27 million as part of their own investigations, the reports said.

(By Sofia Wu)

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