Liechtenstein returns US$11 million to Taiwan in Lafayette scandal case
ROC Central News Agency
02/02/2023 10:45 PM
Taipei, Feb. 2 (CNA) Liechtenstein has handed over to Taiwan about US$11 million deposited in the country as part of the illicit kickbacks involved in the Lafayette frigate scandal dating back three decades, according to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) Thursday.
The first tranche of the illegal profits deposited in several countries has arrived in the account of the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office following international judicial cooperation and the money will be returned to the national treasury, the ministry said in a press release.
The high-profile scandal occurred in the late 1980s when the French government, through the former partially state-owned Elf Aquitaine, was alleged to have paid bribes to secure a deal to make six Lafayette-class frigates with Taiwan.
The warships were sold via another French firm, Thomson-CSF (now Thales), to the Republic of China (Taiwan) Navy in a deal signed in 1991 at a cost of US$2.8 billion, a price said to include kickbacks and bribes that facilitated the purchase.
Liechtenstein responded positively in September 2006 to Taiwan's request to freeze the illicit funds that went to the deceased arms broker Andrew Wang (汪傳浦) in the form of kickbacks, according to the ministry's press release.
Following rulings by Taiwan's Supreme Court in 2019 and 2021 that permitted the seizure of about US$487 million from the heirs of Wang, Taiwan prosecutors have been in talks with Liechtenstein to have the money deposited in the country returned to Taiwan, the MOJ said.
According to the ministry, most of the funds were deposited in banks in Switzerland and the promised restitution of US$266 million made by the Swiss Department of Justice and Police in February 2021 is still being negotiated, the ministry said.
(By Hsieh Hsin-en and Shih Hsiu-chuan)
Enditem/AW
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
