France Moves to Dismiss Taiwan Warship Probe

This thing is hairier than my butt.

[quote]France Moves to Dismiss Taiwan Warship Probe
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 6 Aug 07:49 EDT (11:49 GMT)

PARIS - Prosecutors said Aug. 6 that they have called to dismiss without trial a seven-year probe into alleged kickbacks paid for the multibillion-dollar sale of French warships to Taiwan in 1991.

The office of state prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin confirmed a report in Le Figaro newspaper saying he had requested the case, France’s biggest corruption probe in 50 years, to be dismissed for lack of evidence.

French judges wrapped up a five-year investigation in 2005 into alleged kickbacks paid on the sidelines of the deal but were repeatedly denied access by the government to top-secret defense files at the heart of the case.

Writing to financial judges Renaud Van Ruymbeke and Xaviere Simeoni on July 24, the prosecutor said their investigation had not “brought to light the existence of retro-commissions” paid on the sidelines of the 1991 frigate sale, according to Le Figaro.

The inquiry centers on accusations that a substantial chunk of $2.8 billion paid by Taiwan for six French-made frigates went on commissions to middlemen, politicians and military officers in Taiwan, China and France.

Taiwan’s highest anti-corruption body has said as much as $400 million might have been paid in bribes for the warships built by French defense company Thomson-CSF (now called Thales).

Allegations of backhanders emerged after the body of the officer who ran the Taiwanese navy’s weapons acquisitions office was found floating in the sea off the island’s east coast in 1993.

Further suspicions arose when Swiss courts discovered $520 million in accounts held by businessman Andrew Wang, the main suspect in the case, who was allegedly tasked with convincing Taiwan to buy the ships.

Taiwan is seeking damages of close to 1 billion euros from France before an international court of arbitration.

It has also sought the return of the $520 million held on Wang’s Swiss accounts, but Switzerland in April rejected the request.

A total of $900 million remains frozen by Swiss banks on suspicion that they were bribes.

In Taiwan, eight people including Wang have been charged in relation to the scandal. Thirteen officers and 15 arms dealers have already been imprisoned.

The Taiwan frigates affair was also at the origin of a political scandal, known as the Clearstream affair, in which top figures including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, then interior minister, were wrongly accused of receiving kickbacks from the sale.
defensenews.com/story.php?i= … =ASI&s=TOP[/quote]

Very convenient for the French, thus avoiding any penalty payments of upwards of a billion plus bucks. And for the Swiss who continue to keep the 500 million plus bucks in their accounts “frozen” as it were, but still making money for the clock making swiss.