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Chen Cheng-hui to Plead Guilty Tomorrow
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 2009/02/18
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News Analysis
Chen Cheng-hui to Plead Guilty Tomorrow
Sources: Taipei newspapers
February 18, 2009
Ma Yung-cheng, former deputy secretary general to President Chen, and Lin Teh-hsun, former Chef de Cabinet to President Chen shifted all responsibility to Chen Cheng-hui, former President Chen Shui-bian’s cashier and bookkeeper at the Presidential Office, in yesterday’s court hearing in the State Affairs Fund case trial. Ma claimed that he had never instructed Chen Cheng-hui to surreptitiously use the personal seals of the Presidential Office staffers to claim reimbursements from the State Affairs Fund. Lin contended that he had never instructed Chen Cheng-hui to take any money from the State Affairs Fund to the Official Residence of former President Chen Shui-bian. Lin said that any such doings were between Wu Shu-jen and Chen Cheng-hui, and had nothing to do with him.
Chen Cheng-hui said she was filled with sorrow when she learned that her former superiors Ma Yung-cheng and Lin Teh-hsun had shifted all the responsibility to her.
Lin Ta-chieh, Chen Cheng-hui’s lawyer, said that Ma Yung-cheng and Lin Teh-hsun had checked and approved the monthly balance sheet of the State Affairs Fund managed by Chen Cheng-hui. Chen expressed her remorse, saying, “They deny any guilt and place all the blame on me.”
According Chen Cheng-hui’s lawyer, Chen Cheng-hui felt saddened and heart-broken and decided to plead guilty to all four counts against her in the court hearing scheduled to take place on February 19, namely, corruption, document forgery, money-laundering and perjury.
The prosecutors opined that if Chen Cheng-hui pleaded guilty to all the charges against her, it would pose a great threat and be a disadvantage to Wu Shu-jen. Under the instruction of Wu Shu-jen and Chen Shui-bian, Chen Cheng-hui had claimed reimbursements from the State Affairs Fund and then taken the money to the Presidential Residence and given it to Wu. Chen Cheng-hui also admitted that some of the details on her minidisc had come from Chen Shui-bian’s hand-written notes.
In the previous court hearing, Chen Cheng-hui had pleaded guilty to only two counts, i.e., document forgery and perjury, but had refused to plead guilty to the other two counts of corruption and laundering money. However, the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of Prosecutor General’s Office concluded that Chen Cheng-hui had provided a smoking gun and had expressed her remorse over her wrongdoings, so the SIU had submitted a request to the court to remit her penalty. Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-shun told Chen Cheng-hui during the court hearing that the prosecutors had expressed their good will and asked her to give serious thought to pleading guilty.
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