Civil Forfeiture and Ex-President CHEN Shui-bian

choi

My comment:
(a) Naturally I was/am convinced Nationalists including the incumbent president Ma Ying-jeou have persecuted Taiwan's ex-President Chen Shui-bian and his aides, with trumped-up charges. I am disappointed that US aided Ma in this account.
(b) Latest first.


(1) Peter Lattman, Forfeiture From Crimes Add Luster to Enforcers; A distribution to the victims of fraud can take a decade, as in the Adelpia case. New York Times, Jan 2, 2013.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013 ... -in-dinosaur-bones/
(The aggressive use of forfeiture as a legal mechanism to seize and freeze criminal proceeds, despite Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000)

first three paragraphs:

"The federal government runs a multibillion-dollar business in Lower Manhattan with an unusual and diverse revenue stream.

"In the last year, the government’s prosecutorial branch in Manhattan has taken in about $160 million from an online poker operation and more than $2 billion from a failed Ponzi scheme. Last week, it even secured a Tyrannosaurus skeleton from Mongolia valued at more than $1 million.

"This business is the asset forfeiture unit of the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan. In 2012, the unit recovered about $3 billion in crime proceeds — the largest amount ever recovered by a single United States attorney’s office since the Justice Department established the asset forfeiture program four decades ago. It also accounts for 68 percent of the national total last year from the country’s 93 United States attorney’s offices, according to government figures.

My comment: There is no need to read the rest of the report, which does not mention Mr Chen.


(2) Embezzlement Charges Dropped Against Former Taiwan Ministers. Radio Australia, Dec 28, 2012.
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au ... n-ministers/1067048
(Professor Chen Wen-Hsien, Graduate Institute of Taiwan History, National Chengchi University said in an interview with Radio Australia: "And the charges against the former president, so-called bribery scandals, has never shown the people some of the evidence")

Note:
(a) CHIOU I-jen  邱 義仁
(b) James HUANG  黃 志芳 (a man)
(c) Chen Wen-Hsien, Graduate Institute of Taiwan History, National Chengchi University
國立政治大學 台灣史研究所教授 陳文賢


(3)
(a) US Forfeits $2.1 Million Worth of Property Purchased with Alleged Bribes Paid to the Family of the Former President of Taiwan. Criminal Division, US Department of Justice, Nov 14, 2012.
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/November/12-crm-1359.html

Note:
(i)
(A) Lanny is either abbreviated from names like Ronald, or diminutive of LANCE, LANDON, and other names beginning with Lan.
(B) The German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) surname Breuer is "occupational name for a brewer of beer or ale, from Middle High German briuwer ‘brewer.’"
ii) Keswick, Virginia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keswick,_Virginia
(a community about six miles east of Charlottesville)
(iii) US Asset Recovery Tools & Procedures: A practical guide for international cooperation. US Department of State, May 2012.
www.state.gov/documents/organization/190690.pdf
(at page 2: "In 2010, the Department of Justice launched the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative")
(iv) kleptocracy (n; Greek, from kleptein to steal; First Known Use 1819):
"government by those who seek chiefly status and personal gain at the expense of the governed"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kleptocracy


(b) Samuel Rubenfeld, US Seizes Ex-Taiwan Leader’s Manhattan Condo, Virginia House. Corruption Currents (a WSJ blog), Nov 15, 2012
http://blogs.wsj.com/corruption- ... ndo-virginia-house/

Quote:

"Jonathan Harris, a lawyer hired by the son of Chen and Wu to defend them via the company in the forfeiture case, said in an interview that the government statement 'grossly mischaracterizes the situation,' saying that the family entered into a settlement forfeiting the properties without admitting any liability. 'The whole case was just the US government trying to curry favor with current government of Taiwan,' Harris said.

Despite assertions US made in the complaint filed with the court, "a ruling in a Taiwan court found that Chen, as president, held no sway in bank mergers and performed no official act in return for the money. Taiwanese prosecutors are appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court, Harris said in the interview. * * * The Manhattan condo, at 261 West 28th St, was purchased for $1.6 million in 2008. The Virginia property was purchased for $550,000 the same year. But Harris said it was beginning to cost his clients more money than the value of the property itself.

(c) Joe Palazzolo, Ex-Taiwan President Scores a Victory in Legal Fight Over Manhattan Condo. Corruption Currents, Aug 29, 2012
http://blogs.wsj.com/corruption- ... er-manhattan-condo/
(Magistrate Judge Frank Maas in Manhattan recommended in a report to district judge that "said the Justice Department fell short of showing that it would be able to prove at trial that the payments to the former first lady amounted to 'bribery of a public official' under Taiwanese law")