ICRT wrap of Chen scandal

Wu's older brother admitted today to having put a shitton of money in his account for Wu Shu-chen, Chen's wife. Here's the wrap in full:

Former President Chen Shui-bian and his wife - Wu Shu-ren - have been listed
as suspects in a money laundering case and have been barred from leaving the
country.

According to the Supreme Prosecutors Office .... other suspects in the
ballooning case are Wu's elder brother - Wu Qing-mao - and Chen's son Chen
Zhi-chong and daughter-in-law Huang Rei-qing - both of whom have left the
country and face possible detention on their return.

Speaking to reporters .... lead Prosecutor Chu Zhao-liang .. said that the
former first lady's brother has admitted to be instructed to wire money into
various overseas bank accounts - some of which was transferred via an
underground banking system.

Prosecutors say that Wu Qing-mao also confessed that he began to handle his
sisters finances when Chen served as Mayor of Taipei between 1994 and 1998.

The former first lady had told prosecutors that all overseas funds came from
the balance of Chen's campaign election expenses, his earnings as a lawyer
before entering politics, her dowry and her investment gains.

Chen admitted last Thursday that he did not faithfully report election
campaign expenses from his two mayoral elections and two presidential
elections between 1993 and 2004 ... but said that he was unaware that the
balance of the funds was wired abroad by his wife until early this year.

Meanwhile ... Chen's daughter has claimed that her father used the funds at
the center of the ballooning financial scandal to help the election campaigns
of several D-P-P heavyweights.

According to Chen Xing-yu ... the D-P-P members who received election
subsidies from her father did not file reports about those funds .. and nor
did they report any surplus funds honestly.

Chen claimed that former Premiers Su Zhen-chang and Frank Xie as well as
Gaoxiong Mayor Chen Chu are among a long lost of party members who received
financial assistance from her father during their election campaigns.

Yelling a reporters who followed her to her place of work yesterday ... Chen
described the investigation into the former president's suspected money
laundering as a "political struggle" ... adding that politicians from the
K-M-T have also filed dishonest reports regarding election campaign
contributions.

All of the D-P-P heavyweights Chen claim's received funds have denied the
allegations.

Prosecutors have also questioned former Ministry of Justice Investigation
Bureau chief .. Yeh Sheng-mao over alleged concealment of information
regarding suspected money laundering by members of the former first family.

At issue is a report from the Egmont Group -- an international anti-money
laundering organization -- that Yeh allegedly received in January detailing
the status of overseas bank accounts created by Chen's family.

Yeh admitted that he did not deliver formal documents concerning the
sensitive information to State Public Prosecutor-General before his
retirement last month because of what he claimed was his "personal
negligence"

However, Yeh has said that he made an oral report to Chen Cang-ming in
early February -- a claim that the prosecutor-general denies.

The case has been assigned to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office,
instead of the special investigation unit of the Supreme Prosecutors Office
headed by Chen ... in order to avoid any conflict of interests.