The sister-in-law of former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian and a Taiwanese businessman pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges yesterday, becoming the eighth and ninth defendants to do so in the massive corruption case implicating the ex-leader.
Chen Chun-ying also became the fourth family member to plead guilty since hearings started last month at Taipei District Court.
'I am guilty,' Chen Chun-ying told Judge Tsai Shou-hsun.
The businessman, Kuo Chuan-ching, responding to a summons, also pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges.
Chen Chun-ying's lawyer, Yeh Ta-hui, said his client had provided the dummy accounts into which the ex-president's wife, Wu Shu-chen, could wire money abroad. Mr Yeh sought a pardon in exchange for the guilty plea, but that was rejected by the prosecutors on the grounds that they were still investigating another corruption case allegedly involving the ex-president and his wife.
Chen Chun-ying was charged in December with assisting the former first family in laundering US$1.84 million abroad.
Kuo was charged in December with assisting the former first family in laundering more than US$15 million. He was also charged with offering NT$91.8 million (HK$21.8 million) in bribes to Wu in exchange for her help in winning a contract in late 2003 to build a government exhibition centre in Taipei. A hearing in the bribery case has yet to be scheduled, though Kuo has confessed that he gave the money to Wu through her close associate Tsai Ming-che.