Former President Lee found not guilty of embezzlement
ROC Central News Agency
2013/11/15 22:01:13
Taipei, Nov. 15 (CNA) Former President Lee Teng-hui was found not guilty Friday in an embezzlement and money laundering case while a protégé of Lee, Liu Tai-ying, was convicted and sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.
The verdicts were handed down by the Taipei District Court, and both can be appealed.
The court ruled that Lee, who was president from 1988 to 2000, did not know the details of how money was moved under a secret account and did not give instructions related to the account to then National Security Bureau (NSB) chief Yin Tsung-wen.
The court said that although Lee approved the use of the special fund, 'it was impossible for him to know the details of every one of the fund's disbursements given the many things he was busy with as president.'
Prosecutors from a special unit said Friday that it would decide whether or not to appeal Lee's not-guilty verdict after studying it.
Lee and Liu were indicted in June 2011 after the Special Investigation Division (SID) under the Supreme Prosecutors Office discovered that US$7.79 million from a secret fund was diverted in the 1990s to set up and finance the Taiwan Research Institute, a private research organization founded by Liu in 1992.
Lee, 90, called a news conference after the verdict was handed down and said the case had given him many 'sleepless nights' over the past two years, but he 'always had confidence in my own innocence.'
The case traces all the way back to May 1994 when Lee visited South Africa and promised a US$10.5 million donation to the country to solidify bilateral ties.
Lee then said that if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not draw the funds from its own budget, they could be provided through a secret account run by the NSB for the use of the president, according to the prosecution.
The NSB asked the Foreign Ministry to return the money in September 1998, and in February 1999, then Foreign Affairs Minister Jason Hu remitted US$10.7 million to an overseas account of the NSB.
After the money was received, NSB official Hsu Ping-chiang, who was in charge of the NSB's accounting department, instructed section chief Liu Kuan-chun to buy 7,500 traveler's checks worth US$1,000 each and withdraw another US$294,545 in cash.
Hsu then sent a fruit gift box with the money hidden inside to Liu, then chairman of the China Development Industrial Bank.
Liu pocketed 150 traveler's checks and the cash for his own use and gave the remaining traveler's checks to Samuel Yin, a tycoon and a former student, to convert into cash and donate to the Taiwan Research Institute under the name of individuals or corporations, according to the prosecution.
The SID argued there was ample evidence to indict the former president and his close aide.
It said Hsu, Liu Kuan-chun and Lee Teng-hui were the only people who knew about the secret account and that Hsu and Liu would have only moved money under Lee's instructions.
Also, when the National Security Bureau was required to write a report on the secret account after its existence came to light in March 2002, Hsu, Yin Tsung-wen, Liu Tai-ying and Lee Teng-hui met at Lee's residence in Daxi to go over the report, the SID said, indicating that the former president knew about the fund's disbursements.
The SID further contended that a High Court verdict in a case related to the secret account also said Lee knew about the transfer of public funds to the Taiwan Research Institute and was the key decision-maker.
The case put the secret account under the spotlight, and its lack of scrutiny and transparency was widely criticized. Former President Chen Shui-bian closed the account and returned its remaining funds to national coffers in 2002.
(By Page Tsai, Jay Chan and Lilian Wu)
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