Thursday, November 17, 2011

Broker with PNG links jailed in Taiwan

A DIPLOMATIC broker from Singapore who is serving a jail term in Taiwan in connection with the embezzlement of nearly US$30 million (K63.42 million) in Taiwanese diplomatic funds was given three years and 10 months in prison on Tuesday on charges of breach of trust, The National reports.
The Taiwan High Court increased Wu Shih-tsai’s sentence of three years and four months meted out by the Taipei District Court in April on the charges of breach of trust to three years and 10 months, ruling that Wu seriously harmed Taiwan.
The high court judges said  Wu and his partner, Ching Chi-Ju, a Taiwanese national with a US passport, were commissioned by then-foreign minister Huang Chih-fang in 2006 to help facilitate a deal to establish diplomatic ties with Pa­pua New Guinea.
Then national security council secretary-general Chiou I-jen gave Huang a directive in August 2006 to seek the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between Taiwan and PNG, the high court judges said.
Huang then invited Wu and Ching to act as “go-between” and had the Ministry of Foreign Affairs remit US$29.8 million (K63 million) in September that year to a joint account that Wu and Ching opened in Singapore to be used as “financial aid” for PNG.
When no progress had been made for more than a year, however, Huang asked the two to return the money. – eTaiwan News

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