Ex-KMT financier to be jailed for embezzlement

[Concorde]

Ex-KMT financier to be jailed for embezzlement; case closed

2015/11/04 18:22:28

Liu Tai-ying arrives for a court hearing in Taipei in February 2014.

Taipei, Nov. 4 (CNA) The former chief financier of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang (KMT), Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), has been found guilty of embezzling public funds and will be jailed for three years, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, closing the case for good.

The court overturned an appeal by Liu, 79, against a lower court sentence of three years' imprisonment.

In June 2011, the Special Investigation Division (SID) under the Supreme Prosecutors Office indicted former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and his close confidant Liu, who was the KMT's chief financier during Lee's 1988-2000 presidency, on charges of corruption, embezzlement and money laundering.

During his presidential tenure, Lee also doubled as KMT chairman.

SID prosecutors alleged that US$7.79 million was diverted from a secret fund operated by the National Security Bureau in the late 1990s to finance the Taiwan Research Institute, a private research organization established by Liu in 1994.

The prosecutors suspected the money transfer was conducted under Lee's instructions.

However, the Taipei District Court in 2013 found the ex-president not guilty of corruption and money laundering, but determined that Liu was guilty of having embezzled bank checks with a total value of US$7.35 million, and sentenced him to 32 months in prison.

Following an SID appeal, the Taiwan High Court maintained the district court's ruling in August last year, but changed the sentence to three years since it found that the funds flowing into the Taiwan Research Institute via Liu amounted to US$7.5 million rather than US$7.35 million.

The case against Lee was closed after SID prosecutors decided not to appeal, based on the Speedy Criminal Trial Act.

(By Peggy Tsai and Elizabeth Hsu)