Re: Lafayette 'funding' issues yet unresloved - 19 years on

Politics Taiwan Politics
1

Re: Taiwan News 10/15/09
Lafayette slush fund still frozen

etaiwannews.com/etn/news_con … TAIWAN_eng

[color=#4000BF]A slush fund from the scandal-plagued Lafayette frigate deal struck between Taiwan and France in the early 1990s is still frozen in a Swiss bank account, Taiwan’s top prosecutor said yesterday.

State Public Prosecutor-General Chen Tsung-ming made the remarks while fielding questions at a Legislative Yuan committee meeting after recent news reports said a Swiss federal court revoked earlier this month a 1996 court ruling that determined the French contractor paid kickbacks on the Lafayette deal in violation of its contract with Taiwan.

According to the news report, the Swiss court’s about-face ruling might adversely affect Taiwan’s chances of winning an international commercial arbitration that is still under way in Paris. [/color]

Good thing the Swiss are holding back for a more reasonable review of the circuitous money trail. Inflating the original sale price of the frigate purchase was manipulated to the overwhelming advantage of parties in Taiwan seeking to enrich themselves secretly, with a margin provided for compliance through the then French Foreign Minister Dumas.

Prosecutors are now obviously trying to implicate the French as the masterminds in the sleaze-tainted price fixing so as to save face for the very people they should be focusing their power to bring charges against.

Why the heck would the French want to bribe the people putting up all the money on the purchasing end in Taiwan?

This latest twist in the long-running tale shows ‘Taiwan nationalism’ at work … to save face and skirt the truth, nevermind internalional law. It’s the other guys’s fault. Give us back our unpaid bribe money and let’s everybody just move on. The press is going to bat for unconvicted felons, too, feigning disinterest in getting to the bottom of it all

They simply see no real value in insisting on the truth.

Fortunately, however, some with an educated opinion on the matter here in Taiwan are not so apt to go along with this latest re-fix/dupe.

Re: National Policy Foundation (Taipei) 3/17/03
The Lafayette scandal

old.npf.org.tw/PUBLICATION/NS/09 … 92-080.htm

[color=#400080]Minister of National Defense Tang Yiau-min has offered NT$100 million as a reward for anybody who may help crack what is known as the Lafayette rebate case. Aside from the cash reward, Tang would, with the consent of the judiciary, turn its winner into a state witness, who will be given immunity even if proven guilty. Tang had Andrew Wang in mind as that state witness-to-be, albeit he did not say so.

It all started when Roland Dumas, a former French foreign minister involved in a bribery case but acquitted, said in his recently published memoir he had given US$500 million as kickbacks to Taipei and Beijing. In particular, Dumas described the secretariat general of the ruling party in Taiwan as the recipient of four fifths of the rebate from Thomson CSF, the French shipbuilding company that sold six Lafayette frigates to our navy.

Wang was Thomson’s agent in Taipei, when the frigate deal was struck. He left Taiwan after the scandal came to light and has stayed away. Nobody knows where he lives. However, he has recently had his signature and papers notarized or authenticated by our consular officers in Geneva and London in order to reclaim his frozen large Swiss bank deposit.

Tang hopes Wang will return to Taipei to come clean. The chances are that the former Thomson agent will not come back for fear the Taipei authorities would renege.[/color]

Apparently, Mr Wang still doesn’t want to ‘give up’, either. Unbelievable!

2

Re: Taipei Times (CNA) 10/15/09
Lafayette slush fund still frozen

newspapersites.net/Newspaper … imes-1.asp

[color=#BF0000]REVERSAL[/color]: The about-face by a Swiss court could make it difficult for Taiwan to win arbitration in the scandal, which involves US$495 million in unlawful kickbacks

REQUEST:

[color=#400080]Taiwan has requested the repayment of US$520 million in unlawful kickbacks from Thales — the French company that sold six Lafayette frigates for US$2.5 billion to the country in 1991.

At the time, the company operated under the name Thomson-CSF.

Under Article 18 of the contract, the French contractor was prohibited from making any kind of commission payment.

In the arbitration petition, Taiwan is also demanding payment for 17 years’ worth of interest on the money.

The French contractor insists it did not pay any commission to secure the deal, but the French government has refused to provide any information about the money trail, citing the need to protect its defense establishment, which has made it difficult to resolve the case.[/color]

SETBACK:

[color=#400080]Local media reports have said that the latest Swiss court ruling seemed to back the French claim and could eventually lead to Taiwan’s loss in the arbitration process.

Responding to lawmakers’ concerns about the prospects for the case, Chen said that the Oct. 8 Swiss court ruling clearly states that all the Taiwan-related Lafayette slush funds would remain frozen in a Swiss bank account at Taiwan’s request.

Chen was referring to US$495 million in unlawful kickbacks on the Lafayette deal paid to Andrew Wang, the middle man who was Thompson-CSF’s agent in Taiwan.

Chen said the Swiss court’s writ would remain in force until after a Taiwanese court has made a final ruling on the Wang-related corruption case.[/color]

CLAIMS:

[color=#400080]Taiwanese investigators claim that Thompson-CSF paid the US$495 million to Wang and a further US$25 million to Alfred Sirven, a former vice chairman of the French oil firm Elf-Aquitaine.

Sirven is alleged to have played the role of money launderer and allocator of the kickbacks in the transaction.

Wang fled Taiwan in late 1993 following the death of Navy Captain Yin Ching-feng under suspicious circumstances.

Yin is believed to have been ready to blow the whistle on colleagues who had allegedly received kickbacks from the Lafayette deal.

Wang has been wanted by Taiwanese authorities in connection with Yin’s murder since September 2000.[/color]

Attempts to pin blame for Captain Yin’s 1993 murder in Yilan on Wang - seven years after the fact - also seem funky at best.

Re: ABC (Australia) Investigative Unit [undated]
abc.net.au/news/investigations/

[color=#4000BF]Eight people involved in the Taiwan ships contract have died in unusual or suspicious circumstances. The Thales representative at the time, Andrew Wang, is wanted for the murder of a naval officer involved in the deal. Late last year he was still on the run.[/color]

3

Was Hau Lau-bin’s father connected to the Lafayette case when he was defense minister?

4

I’d imagine he’d have wanted the frigates made to specification and delivered for Taiwan’s navy asap, without too much monkey business or dead guys or unending scandal and that he must still be severely pissed at the guys right under him and below, like Wang, who screwed it all up so badly … as the deal went ‘overcost’, did not end up going smoothly -as he’d have had it - but rather left him also under the burden of lingering suspicion. Good question. Wish I could ask him myself.

5

Thales returns MONEY. HOw about that?

chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/nati … inally.htm

what gives? Since the USA is supposedly going to turn down the F16 C/D package that TAiwan wants to buy, could the French feel a HUGE fighter jet order in the making? Something like replacing the decrepit Mirage 2000V with the Raphale maybe?

Give the Taiwanese back the 800 odd million and win a multi BILLION order for more jets? Could be a smart move for Zee Frenchies?

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[quote=“tommy525”]Thales returns MONEY. HOw about that?

chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/nati … inally.htm

what gives? Since the USA is supposedly going to turn down the F16 C/D package that TAiwan wants to buy, could the French feel a HUGE fighter jet order in the making? Something like replacing the decrepit Mirage 2000V with the Raphale maybe?

Give the Taiwanese back the 800 odd million and win a multi BILLION order for more jets? Could be a smart move for Zee Frenchies?[/quote]

Nah, if France wants to sell fighter planes to Taiwan they would have offered them already. Given China’s objections most countries simply won’t sell arms to Taiwan, so it’s actually Taiwan that has to beg for the jets, not the other way around.

7

Well maybe Taiwan’s IDF 2 will now get the nod? Its better then nada.

8

Not just that millions also went to the Chinese.