Don’t they use computers over there in Great Britain? How on earth did her name not raise a red flag?
The civil service is not elected, and most of it remains loyal to those who made that wonderful iron rice bowl. They look after their own.
Do you really think it was an “inside job”? Or just more official bungling?
I think there are ‘big hands’ behind the whole thing. These kind of kickbacks do not get handed out without (at least) the foriegn, finance and defense ministries being involved, and those people would not want their pawn caught and questioned. C’mon, passport applications were granted on paperwork that wasn’t even filled in completely and to people on the ‘stop list’. An ordinary citizen would not be issued documents on incomplete paperwork, but wanted criminals were. Does that sound like simple incompetance?
Actually when it comes to a caper like this the smart odds makers carry it about even money on stupidity or sleaze. I would bet both. It is kind of an I-Ching like balance; Swami Brian guesses sleaze at the top (mid-leval management of the local office) and stupidity/sheeplikeness at the bottom (the front counter clown).
The correct I-Ching symbol for it is this
___ Sleaze Lines above
_ _Sheep&Stupidity below
_ _
_ _
The resulting triagram is “Typical Taiwanese Governement Agency” number 18 in the I-Ching
I know all of this because I studied the I-Ching back in university, plus I am a certified Taoist Priest.
Grand Master Brian
Imperial Greased Palms Sect of the Immortial Tao of Dollars
Maybe it was all done under the watchful eyes of LTH.
Yesterday there were the actual war games of China/Taiwan in the newspapera allover the world. they showed that Taiwan could withstand an attack from China only for two weeks! And the most interesting thing in this whole case is that the frigates which would be used in this war would be the Lafayette from the frigate scancal! concerning the frigate scandal I found a quite interesting website for whom it may interest: Andrew Wang Frigate
they have some material from Wangs point of view which I didn’t find anywhere else.
Ac, I think the tinfoil in your hat needs adjusting…
It’s interesting how one of the biggest scandal’s in the nation’s history - one that goes all the way up to the ex-prez and ex-premier, one that is responsible for 8 deaths, one that also goes to the top of French politics and is almosted solved - is not blasted by the media 24/7. Taiwan society seems to be more concerned with vouchers, insider trading, Hyatt receipts, jewelry and other serious but relatively minor issues. How can this be? Where are the “No Truth, No Democracy” rable-rousers when you need them? Is it because the media is controlled mostly by a certain political party and understands the bigger implications if/when the truth came/comes out? Michael Turton (once again) has two recent, outstanding posts about this issue: Layfayette we are still here and Lafayette Lee and Hau
Intrigue, Intrigue…
Is Soong finally going down? Is Hau going down? What about LTH? The money definately flowed to the top of the KMT. It’s a fact, but who got what? It looks to be a showdown between Hau and Lee. (And how will this effect Hau’s son who is running for Taipei Mayor?) Is the whole KMT structure about to implode? Will this instigate China to impose thier "if political instability in Taiwan, then we can take over clause(something like that). Given current events in the ME, with US potentially going into Iran, timing would be ripe for China to make a move.
Interestingly, a commentor on Michael’s site made this observation:
I read this and am just shocked and outraged, but what makes me sad is the amount of apathy some Taiwanese feel about this scandal. I can’t help but wonder the corrupting influence this money has had on Taiwanese politics today–Soong uses his ill-gotten gains to fund his extremist unification PFP, and Lee Teng-hui, though his personal benefits from black gold (and perhaps he necessarily participated in some cases in order to consolidate power, much less is known about him) similarly pays the bill for the extremist, independence now TSU.
Then there are the stolen KMT party assets that Ma is liquidating, in order to make it even more untraceable, even more difficult for any future government to ever try to take back. But whatever its history, the problem is it gives an unfair advantage to candidates who until the recent primaries (a little progress!), had absolutely no need to cater to the public since both money and internal party power had nothing to do with the public at large. So I think about the DPP, and on the one hand, they compensate heavily for the lack of assets through grass-roots support and good-hearted businessmen, there is no way there is no “black gold” over there either. But my guess is that it is very different in nature and is more about direct benefits–businessmen donating and getting bids, getting convenient tax breaks, etc. In any case, my point is that in this kind of environmnet, it would be nearly impossible for the DPP to not have accepted corrupting influences in order to compete monetarily with the KMT/PFP/TSU clowns.
But anyways, this stuff didn’t just make people personally rich. If they had all just immigrated to America and taken the money with them, Taiwan would have taken a loss, but politics would be in a lot better shape. But they didn’t, a lot stayed, and now they use their money to continue to poison the Taiwanese political process.
Another fascinating link - see the second Clearstream affair (Clearstream is a huge money laundering bank syndicate).
BBC link: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3244148.stm
corbeau
Chewy?
I saw in the paper today Capt. Yins widow scolding Chen Shui bian for not fulfilling his promise to solve the murder of her husband and in a broader sense unravel the Lafayette frigate caper.
Chen Shui bian famously boasted years ago to solve the case “even if the nation’s foundation shakes”. And I did quite a bit of work on the case when I worked for Amnesty International Taiwan. Even though Capt. Yin’s murder was a Taiwanese case we were given a dispensation by Amnesty International headquarters to work the case. (normally AI sections do not work on cases arising in their own county).
Over the years I have seen the pundits yack about how the case must reach to high levels (i.e. Lee Tung Hui was involved) or is a reflection of the evil KMT. Both those views I think are grossly misplaced.
If the cyber sleuths and commentators want to unravel the case I think they would do better to focus on the various cliques or cells (whatever you want to call them) of the old ROC military gang known as the Qing Bang (the Blue/Green Gang, in Chinese 青幫 ).
I have no proof one way or the other but as someone who has spent a lot of time in two criminal justice systems (California and Taiwan) I strongly suspect that the Yin murder and the frigate shenanigans were the work of a fairly small but extremely dangerous group of Qing Bang people. The more accurate way to view it is not as some grand high level deal with Lee Tung Hui, the KMT and a cast of thousands, but rather as a kind of LAPD Rampart scandal type deal.
In any event, too bad for Capt. Yin’s widow. When I saw her picture in the paper this morning I remembered I had met her many years ago.
Take care,
Brian
I don’t follow if it is 青幫, CSB can easily go after them in the ROC military. He can dismiss almost anyone in the system. The unfetted executive power in this case works in his favor, if he chooses to pursue the case. He is actually protected by his fame on Taiwan.
But then again didn’t one of CSB lawyers turn up dead in the river a few months ago…
730 million dollars identified deposited in over sixty swiss bank accounts, allegedly illegally gained funds. Taiwan is petitioning only for 520 dollars of the monies. Why are the rest of the monies even there?
But the swiss are finally returning the first batch of 34 million. Perhaps they may soon return the 520 million. I wonder where the other hundreds of millions came from, and shouldnt that also be Taiwan’s? After all , all that 520 million had been sitting for how long? And without any interest?? The ones that scored big are the swiss banks thats who.
[quote=“tommy525”]730 million dollars identified deposited in over sixty swiss bank accounts, allegedly illegally gained funds. Taiwan is petitioning only for 520 dollars of the monies. Why are the rest of the monies even there?
But the swiss are finally returning the first batch of 34 million. Perhaps they may soon return the 520 million. I wonder where the other hundreds of millions came from, and shouldnt that also be Taiwan’s? After all , all that 520 million had been sitting for how long? And without any interest?? The ones that scored big are the swiss banks thats who.
taipeitimes.com/News/front/a … 2003365270[/quote]
Did you think they ran that country of chocolate & swatches? 
1 UBS 36 84,707.6 Zürich Banks: Commercial and Savings
2 Nestlé 53 74,658.6 Vevey Food Consumer Products
3 Credit Suisse 57 72,193.5 Zürich Banks: Commercial and Savings
4 Zürich Financial Services 63 67,186.0 Zürich Insurance: P & C (stock)
5 Novartis 177 32,212.0 Basel Pharmaceuticals
6 Roche Group 204 28,495.6 Basel Pharmaceuticals
7 Swiss Reinsurance 209 28,092.8 Zürich Insurance: P & C (stock)
8 Adecco 278 22,742.7 Glattbrugg Temporary Help
9 ABB 281 22,642.0 Zürich Industrial & Farm Equipment
10 Swiss Life 373 17,286.2 Zürich Insurance: Life, Health (stock)
11 Migros 409 16,357.8 Zürich Food and Frug Stores
12 Holcim 458 14,819.5 Jona Bulding Materials, Glass
The list of the companies in Switzerland that are in the Fortune 500 Global Edition.
It looks as if Taiwan may finally get some money out of the affair:
[quote]France and defense giant Thales announced they would pay Taiwan a court-ordered fine of 630 million euros (US$913 million) after losing an appeal against the payment awarded by an international court of arbitration in May last year.[/quote]–“Paris court rules in favor of Taiwan,” Taipei Times, June 11, 2011
taipeitimes.com/News/front/archi … 03505484/1
Still chasing one of the supposed perpetrators.
Bruno Wang
Lots of good buzz words like scandal,
bribery, payoffs, murder, government complicity, Swiss banks, International warrants, fighting extradition, philanthropy…
It stems from one of France’s biggest political and financial scandals of modern times, which left a trail of unexplained deaths, nearly half a billion dollars in missing cash and troubling allegations of government complicity.
The scandal centred on a £2 billion arms deal between France and Taiwan, signed in 1991. France agreed to supply Taiwan’s navy with six frigates, a deal which Mr Wang’s arms-dealer father, Andrew Wang, helped broker.
Lots of pus being resurrected here…Roland Dumas, old KMT folks, etc.
So what exactly is new in this now thirty year old scandal?
Guy