Tsai Wan-tsai Testifies Before High Court in Second-Phase Financial Reform Case

Tsai Wan-tsai Testifies Before High Court in Second-Phase Financial Reform Case

Source: Taipei newspapers      June 3, 2011

Tsai Wan-tsai, the founder of Fubon Financial Holding Company, along with other defendants, testified before the Taiwan Provincial High Court yesterday in the trial of the Second-Phase Financial Reform scandal case involving the then Chen Shui-bian administration. Tsai told the court that he was not in the habit of giving political contributions to political parties.

However, Tsai revealed that he had tried to give a political contribution to KMT Presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou in 2008, but Ma had refused to accept the money.   

The High Court judges are trying to understand whether the money enterprises gave to the Chen Shui-bian family during the Second-Phase Financial Reform was meant as political contributions or bribes.

On December 24, 2009, the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) under the Prosecutor-General’s Office closed the investigations into the Second-Phase Financial Reform Scandal and money-laundering cases involving the Chen Shui-bian family. Former President Chen Shui-bian, his wife Wu Shu-jen, and 19 others, including top bank executives, were indicted on charges of corruption and money-laundering. However, on November 5, 2010, all the defendants, including the Chen Shui-bian family, were acquitted by the Taipei District Court.

The collegiate bench under judge Chou Chan-chun acquitted Chen Shui-bian on the grounds that a President’s functions and authority were enumerated in the Constitution, and did not include overseeing financial reforms. Therefore, the collegiate bench concluded that the money the Chen family had accepted from banks during the Second-Phase Financial Reform had not been bribes. The SIU decided to appeal the Taipei District Court’s ruling. The Taiwan Provincial High Court, the court of second instance, began the appeal trial of the case on January 12, 2011.

【Editor’s note: Under the Anglo-American Law system, if a defendant is found not guilty by the jury in the court of first instance, no appeal by the prosecutors is possible. According to the ROC judicial system, however, if a defendant is acquitted in the court of first instance, the prosecutors may still appeal the verdict to the court of second instance.】

During the trial in the court of first instance, Tsai Hong-tu, chairman of the Cathay Financial Holdings Corp., testified that his father Tsai Wan-lin had been conscious after returning to Taiwan following a major surgery in the US.

Tsai Hong-tu told the district court judges that he and his younger brother gave NT$ 500 million in political donations to the DPP with their father’s consent, arguing that the donations had nothing to do with Cathy’s merger with United World Chinese Commercial Bank. However, Tsai Wan-tsai and his son Tsai Ming-shing testified that Tsai Wan-lin had been in a vegetative state.  

In yesterday’s trial, Tsai Ming-shing testified that after Tsai Wan-lin returned from the US following a major surgery, he had tried to visit Tsai Wan-lin in the hospital, but had been told that Tsai Wan-lin was resting, so he had not seen him. Tsai Ming-shing told the appellate court judges yesterday that he had told the SIU that Tsai Wan-lin had been in a vegetative state because his father had told him that, adding that he had no knowledge of Tsai Wan-lin’s true medical condition.  

Tsai Wan-tsai then clarified to the trial judges that he had told his son Tsai Ming-shing that the US doctors were not successful in their treatment of Tsai Wan-lin’s condition, adding that if things continued as they were, Tsai Wan-lin might fall into a vegetative state.  

When asked whether or not he had given political contributions to anyone, Tsai Wan-tsai said that he never gave political contributions to political parties, and only gave money to his private friends who ran in elections or were in need of money.  

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