US goes after properties of disgraced ex-Taiwan president

US goes after properties of disgraced ex-Taiwan president
[i]" According to the civil forfeiture complaint filed in New York and Virginia, former first lady Wu Shu-chen was paid six million dollars to prevent her husband’s government from interfering with a company’s takeover bid for a rival firm in Taiwan.

The complaint states Wu laundered the bribe money using shell companies and Swiss bank accounts controlled by her son and his wife. Some of the money was transferred to the United States to buy an apartment in Manhattan and a house in Keswick, Virginia.

Chen, who governed from 2004-2005, and his wife were convicted last year in Taiwan of embezzling state funds, laundering money, accepting bribes and committing forgery and were sentenced to life imprisonment."[/i]…excert.

Interesting to see how this will play out in US courts contrasting with Taiwan legal procedures.
My money still says the daughter-in-law is the brains behind Ah-Bians scam.

[quote=“TainanCowboy”]

Interesting to see how this will play out in US courts contrasting with Taiwan legal procedures.
.[/quote]

Interesting to see how this will play out in the Apple Daily. :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

Too bad Chen was so small potatoes. If only he had laundered billions like the KMT or the Mexican drug cartels, he’d have been fine. This week Bloomberg reported that Wachovia Bank laundered $380 billion in drug money and received… a $160 million fine. Oh, and they had to promise never never never to do it again. As Alternet points out, if you were actually busted selling Mexican drugs on the street, you’d go to jail for many years (and have your assets seized). But laundering Mexican drug cash? No problemo! I’m sure we’re all safer now that Chen Shui-bian’s family had two homes seized, and those Mexican drug cartels, duly warned, are running for cover.

Bloomberg:
bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-2 … -deal.html

[quote=“Vorkosigan”]Too bad Chen was so small potatoes. If only he had laundered billions like the KMT or the Mexican drug cartels, he’d have been fine. This week Bloomberg reported that Wachovia Bank laundered $380 billion in drug money and received… a $160 million fine. Oh, and they had to promise never never never to do it again. As Alternet points out, if you were actually busted selling Mexican drugs on the street, you’d go to jail for many years (and have your assets seized). But laundering Mexican drug cash? No problemo! I’m sure we’re all safer now that Chen Shui-bian’s family had two homes seized, and those Mexican drug cartels, duly warned, are running for cover.
Bloomberg:
bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-2 … -deal.html[/quote]

And the relevance of this to the Ah-Bian Scandal is…what exactly?

Yeah but taking houses off a doofus like Chen Shui Bian is like taking candy from a baby. These Mexican boyos are sophisticated.

The D.I.L. is the brains…Wheel-Chair Wu was grooming her for command of the DPP revolution.

James Soong stole far more and invested more of that loot in US real estate than CSB, so where is the move to grab that? Soong Meiling stole billions of dollars from the US govt. itself and most of that loot was stashed in US banks, at least until she died. Where is the move to get that money back?

My esstimate of CSB’s loot is around US$7B, give or taken $1B. Just add up all the gifts and “political contribution”. Of course, he had to spend a tiny portion to feed his minions. Most are stashed away and will never get recovered. Hint, for a portion of the stash: the tiny sovereignty in Europe.

Back in the Taipei Mayor days, his protege Ma was, on behave of him, asking “contribution”, for the developement of the CaiShen Hotel property, which is now the Taishin HQ. And, yes, I do know someone that was in the inner circle, who is willing to step out and take a lie-detector test, if need be.

Hahahahahaah $7 billion! Hilarious. How? Sources, please!

[quote=“TainanCowboy”][quote=“Vorkosigan”]Too bad Chen was so small potatoes. If only he had laundered billions like the KMT or the Mexican drug cartels, he’d have been fine. This week Bloomberg reported that Wachovia Bank laundered $380 billion in drug money and received… a $160 million fine. Oh, and they had to promise never never never to do it again. As Alternet points out, if you were actually busted selling Mexican drugs on the street, you’d go to jail for many years (and have your assets seized). But laundering Mexican drug cash? No problemo! I’m sure we’re all safer now that Chen Shui-bian’s family had two homes seized, and those Mexican drug cartels, duly warned, are running for cover.
Bloomberg:
bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-2 … -deal.html[/quote]

And the relevance of this to the Ah-Bian Scandal is…what exactly?[/quote]

Ummmm… the relevance is to the pious statement of the US PR spokesman that they were saving the US from abuse of the financial system by corrupt politicians.

Funny how the prosecutors in two trials never called him as a witness.

Funny how the prosecutors in two trials never called him as a witness.[/quote]
Simply because the whole deal was never made public. It was not in the interest of any of the parties involved to do so. This friend on mine is an US citizen, by the way. The manner of the protege and the amount demanded really shock him and totally disgusted him. He was going to step out and spilt out the story during the 2000 presidential election, but was stopped by his mom, for fear that his life might be in jeopardy.

An interesting observation that I made. The whole project went to halt, when CSB lost the mayoral re-election. But resumed within a few month of CSB’s presidency. Ma seems to have always succumed to the higher order.

Funny how the prosecutors in two trials never called him as a witness.[/quote]
Simply because the whole deal was never made public. It was not in the interest of any of the parties involved to do so. This friend on mine is an US citizen, by the way. The manner of the protege and the amount demanded really shock him and totally disgusted him. He was going to step out and spilt out the story during the 2000 presidential election, but was stopped by his mom, for fear that his life might be in jeopardy.

An interesting observation that I made. The whole project went to halt, when CSB lost the mayoral re-election. But resumed within a few month of CSB’s presidency. Ma seems to have always succumed to the higher order.[/quote]

Yes of course, prosectors need witnesses to first make a public declaration of what they know before they start to investigate whether they know anything.

Oh and course your friend had to worry about the evil DPP assassinating him. In America.

What’s the Taiwanese equivalent of a tinfoil hat?

Funny how the prosecutors in two trials never called him as a witness.[/quote]
Simply because the whole deal was never made public. It was not in the interest of any of the parties involved to do so. This friend on mine is an US citizen, by the way. The manner of the protege and the amount demanded really shock him and totally disgusted him. He was going to step out and spilt out the story during the 2000 presidential election, but was stopped by his mom, for fear that his life might be in jeopardy.

An interesting observation that I made. The whole project went to halt, when CSB lost the mayoral re-election. But resumed within a few month of CSB’s presidency. Ma seems to have always succumed to the higher order.[/quote]

Yes of course, prosectors need witnesses to first make a public declaration of what they know before they start to investigate whether they know anything.

Oh and course your friend had to worry about the evil DPP assassinating him. In America.

What’s the Taiwanese equivalent of a tinfoil hat?[/quote]
Anyone who read my words should understand fully well that this guy was working in Taipei at the time on that project. And, CSB’s godfather at the time was LTH, who had the power and resource to silence anyone in Taiwan, just like the Lafayette case.

On that particular project the floor area ratio was way higher than legally allowed. More than double, as I recall. My friend did question about that to his boss, but was told that everything was taken care of, just keep mouth shut and proceed with the design.

[quote=“Vorkosigan”]Too bad Chen was so small potatoes. If only he had laundered billions like the KMT or the Mexican drug cartels, he’d have been fine. This week Bloomberg reported that Wachovia Bank laundered $380 billion in drug money and received… a $160 million fine. Oh, and they had to promise never never never to do it again. As Alternet points out, if you were actually busted selling Mexican drugs on the street, you’d go to jail for many years (and have your assets seized). But laundering Mexican drug cash? No problemo! I’m sure we’re all safer now that Chen Shui-bian’s family had two homes seized, and those Mexican drug cartels, duly warned, are running for cover.
[/quote]

If people had wanted a gang of crooks they would have stayed with the KMT. If Chen’s only defense is the KMT did it too he has exactly a big fat ZERO going for him.

I might have believed that the KMT was setting him up but I have a lot more trouble believing the US government would do it. Not to be naive but there’s no reason to stick that knife in at this point when he’s obviously down for the count. So he’s a crook twice over now, and I’m supposed to feel sorry for him because of what exactly? Mexican drug money or the KMT? That point eludes me. It seems to me a simple story, not only did Chen violate the public trust but he was stupid enough to get caught. Tough luck.

The idea that he could have stolen 7B makes j scholl look well-reasoned.

Funny how the prosecutors in two trials never called him as a witness.[/quote]
Simply because the whole deal was never made public. It was not in the interest of any of the parties involved to do so. This friend on mine is an US citizen, by the way. The manner of the protege and the amount demanded really shock him and totally disgusted him. He was going to step out and spilt out the story during the 2000 presidential election, but was stopped by his mom, for fear that his life might be in jeopardy.

An interesting observation that I made. The whole project went to halt, when CSB lost the mayoral re-election. But resumed within a few month of CSB’s presidency. Ma seems to have always succumed to the higher order.[/quote]

Yes of course, prosectors need witnesses to first make a public declaration of what they know before they start to investigate whether they know anything.

Oh and course your friend had to worry about the evil DPP assassinating him. In America.

What’s the Taiwanese equivalent of a tinfoil hat?[/quote]
Got paid for playing dumb? Anyone who read my words should understand fully well that this guy was working in Taipei at the time on that project. And, CSB’s godfather at the time was LTH, who had the power and resource to silence anyone in Taiwan, just like the Lafayette case.

On that particular project the floor area ratio was way higher than legally allowed. More than double, as I recall. My friend did question about that to his boss, but was told that everything was taken care of, just keep mouth shut and proceed with the design.[/quote]

Tell me something, you described your friend as part of the inner circle. That usually protects you from assassination not makes you a target. You don’t get to be part of the inner circle unless you are trusted and already know what is going on and are in full agreement.

As for whatever shady deal your friend saw, so what? They go on all the time around Taiwan (and the world) and people like you are perfectly happy to have them go on as long as your side is in power and making a profit. CBS just made a nice scapegoat for the bad conscience of blue supporters. Which is not to say he isn’t a complete scumbag. He is. But I bet he’d be your kind of scumbag if he wore a different politcal hat.

Funny how the prosecutors in two trials never called him as a witness.[/quote]
Simply because the whole deal was never made public. It was not in the interest of any of the parties involved to do so. This friend on mine is an US citizen, by the way. The manner of the protege and the amount demanded really shock him and totally disgusted him. He was going to step out and spilt out the story during the 2000 presidential election, but was stopped by his mom, for fear that his life might be in jeopardy.[/quote]
Wow. Sounds like a MacGyver episode.

It most certainly is very special. In a jellybean fashion.

Succumed? I thought most politicians would rather have someone else to perform the actual ingestion.