He says she controls the family funds and he was just following orders
Mr Chen Chih-chung and wife Huang Jui-ching arriving in Taipei from the United States yesterday. They insist they are innocent in the money laundering scandal. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
TAIPEI: Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian's son, suspected of laundering money for his parents, said yesterday that his mother controls the movement of their family's funds, his job being to execute her wish.
Mr Chen Chih-chung and his wife Huang Jui-ching are suspected of laundering tens of millions of dollars through overseas bank accounts, but the junior Chen said he had only done what his mother had asked them to do.
'My mother manages the family's money,' he told reporters at the Taiwan airport after returning from New York. 'We do what my mother wants us to do.' He said he did not know about 'the source or the background' of any money transferred.
Copies of Swiss documents obtained by a Taiwanese lawmaker showed that the junior Chen and his wife had transferred US$31 million (S$43.8 million) to Swiss bank accounts last year.
The couple were questioned yesterday by investigators. According to the Taiwanese media, they were not as loquacious during the interrogation as they had been at the airport, showing cautiousness in their words. They are barred from leaving Taiwan pending investigation after the first questioning.
The couple flew to the United States early this month, just days before the Taiwan authorities began probing the money-laundering claims implicating the Chens, following similar moves by Swiss authorities.
The former president, his wife, son, daughter-in-law and brother-in-law have all been named defendants in the money-laundering case.
Several lawmakers of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) - which defeated Mr Chen's party in elections this year - believe the discovered accounts in Switzerland, Singapore and the Cayman Islands contain just one portion of the money the Chens had stashed away. The rest could be deposited in countries such as the United States and Japan.
They suspected that the many overseas trips the junior Chen made in the first eight months of the year were for the purpose of covering trails of the money flows, with advice from international money managers.
Some feel that the junior Chen pointing fingers at his mother as the one pulling the strings is part of the family's strategy to focus all eyes on the wheelchair-bound former First Lady, who would maintain that the money is only donation leftovers from political campaigns, in line with what the former president said at a press conference.
Prosecutors say they are checking how the funds were wired abroad to try and determine whether bribery might have been involved.
Under Taiwanese law, a false declaration of donations is subject to a fine of NT$300,000 (S$13,495), but money laundering carries a seven-year prison sentence.
KMT lawmakers have accused the former president of taking large bribes in connection with a spate of mergers initiated by the government in 2005, when several small banks took over a number of well-established financial institutions.
