Former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian and his wife were questioned Saturday over money laundering allegations against their family, a prosecutor said.
"We came to Chen's residence and his office to investigate the case this morning ... the former president and his wife (Wu Shu-chen) explained transactions of the funds," said Chu Chao-liang, a spokesman for the special prosecutor's unit. Chu said prosecutors did not use warrants as they were co-operative while the wheelchair-bound Wu wore a cast and appeared to be in poor health.
The United Evening News cited unnamed sources as saying that Wu claimed that the overseas funds came from her family, Chen's past income as a lawyer, his political donations and their investment proceeds. Taiwan has launched a probe into money laundering claims apparently implicating the Chen family following similar moves by Swiss authorities.
Copies of Swiss documents obtained by Kuomintang lawmaker Hung Hsiu-chu showed that Chen's son Chen Chih-chung and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching transferred 31 million US dollars to her Swiss bank accounts in 2007.
The ex-leader was already questioned on Friday but requested "leaves of absence" for the young couple, whom he said were in the US for academic studies, Chu said. They were also summoned by prosecutors on suspicions that some of the 31 million may have come from the former president's campaign funds and state coffers.
"We have notified them to return to Taiwan as soon as possible for the investigation through the former president," the prosecutor said. Chen admitted that his wife had wired abroad 20 million US dollars from his past campaign funds, saying she had done so without his knowledge.
He has denied money laundering. Chen is already under investigation for allegedly embezzling 14.8 million Taiwan dollars (480,500 US) in special expenses from the government while he was president, and his wife is on trial for corruption and document forgery in the same case.
Chen has admitted using false receipts to claim money from the state, but insisted those funds were used for "secret diplomatic missions" and not his personal benefit. Nevertheless, prosecutors found that at least 1.5 million Taiwan dollars had been spent on diamond rings and other luxury items for his wife.
A string of corruption scandals implicating Chen, his family and top Democratic Progressive Party officials has tarnished the party's image and played a part in its defeat in the March presidential vote. Chen quit the party on Friday after the scandal surfaced this week.