Progress made on return of illegal kickbacks in Lafayette Frigate case
ROC Central News Agency
02/05/2021 06:55 PM
Taipei, Feb. 5 (CNA) The Ministry of Justice on Friday confirmed that progress has been made in its pursuit of illicit kickbacks involved in the long-running Lafayette frigate scandal.
The confirmation came after Switzerland announced that it would return part of the US$900 million it confiscated over corruption allegations linked to the case, which date back three decades.
"In the frigates case, Switzerland will restitute nearly US$266 million to Taiwan," the Swiss Department of Justice and Police said in a statement on Thursday, referring to the money as "illegal commissions" paid during an estimated US$2.8 billion deal to buy six Lafayette-class frigates in 1991.
The statement said that the restitution was made possible under a ruling by Taiwan's Supreme Court in late 2019 that confirmed the illegal provenance of the funds and ordered their confiscation.
However, the statement also said the court ruling had not proven that the other frozen funds were derived from corruption, so "the sequestration of these assets will be lifted." It implied that it could be the last restitution by Switzerland in the corruption case.
In response, the ministry said there has been Taiwan-Switzerland mutual legal assistance in criminal matters. Such mutual aid "will continue in terms of the (Lafayette) case," it added.
As progress has been made, the prosecuting authorities responsible for the case will address follow-up matters and provide legal assistance any time it is required, so the illicit assets are returned as soon as possible, the ministry said.
The high-profile case dates back to the mid-1990s when the French former state-owned firm Elf Aquitaine was alleged to have paid bribes -- which ended up in Swiss bank accounts -- to persuade French and Taiwanese authorities to approve the sale of the frigates.
The warships were sold via another French firm, Thomson-CSF (now Thales), to Taiwan's Navy in a 1991 deal that was worth US$2.8 billion, a price said to include kickbacks and bribes that facilitated the purchase.
In 2001, Taiwan submitted a request for legal assistance to Switzerland in connection with the suspected kickbacks. Eventually the Alpine nation froze assets of almost US$900 million and handed over numerous documents concerning blocked bank accounts to Taiwan in 2005.
In 2007, Switzerland, with the agreement of the account holders, returned a first tranche of US$34 million to the Taiwanese authorities.
Of the US$900 million in illicit funds related to the Lafayette scandal, some US$487 million went to deceased arms broker Andrew Wang (汪傳浦) in the form of kickbacks, which were deposited in several countries, with most in Switzerland, according to Taipei District Court information.
Charges against Wang, wanted over the illegal kickbacks and his role in the death of a Navy officer Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓) in 1993, were dropped after Taiwanese officials based in London confirmed his death in the United Kingdom in 2015.
Yin is widely believed to have been murdered because he was ready to blow the whistle on those who took kickbacks in the frigate deal.
In April 2014, the Supreme Court sentenced former Navy captain Kuo Li-heng (郭力恆) to 15 years in prison for accepting US$17 million in kickbacks in connection with the frigate deal.
The court also ordered Kuo and his co-defendant Wang to return US$340 million frozen in foreign bank accounts.
The now-disbanded Special Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office filed a request with Taipei District Court to seize Wang's illicit profits on July 1, 2016, after a legal amendment took effect that day, allowing courts to order the confiscation of allegedly illegal profits without a criminal conviction or sentencing.
(By Hsiao Po-wen and Elizabeth Hsu)
Enditem/AW
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