Chen's accountant pleads guilty to graft, but blames superiors

Former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian's chief accountant, Chen Chen-hui, pleaded guilty to corruption charges yesterday, but stressed she had acted under the instruction of her superiors.

Legal experts said her guilty plea had dealt a heavy blow to the ex-leader, who is facing trial on graft charges, as Chen Chen-hui is the first co-defendant in the massive corruption case to have admitted unlawful behaviour.

The former chief accountant, who had agreed to become a defendant-turned-witness, was brought before the Taipei District Court for the hearing, during which she pleaded guilty to the charges of embezzlement, money laundering, document forgery and false testimony.

'I am guilty,' she told Judge Tsai Shou-hsun, but said she was following the instructions of her superiors, including the wife and two former chief aides of Chen Shui-bian.

She said that between 2000 and 2002 the ex-president's wife, Wu Shu-chen, had asked her to bring NT$37.86 million (HK$8.48 million) in cash to the presidential residence.

Those funds were part of the NT$104 million in special state funds for which Chen Shui-bian and his wife were charged with embezzlement by Taiwanese prosecutors. She also said Wu had asked her to wire some of the funds to Wu's brother, Wu Ching-mao, who was charged with helping his sister launder money abroad.

She said both Ma Yung-cheng and Lin Te-hsun, the two former chief aides of Chen Shui-bian, knew she gave the funds to Wu because she needed to get approval from the two aides to account for the funding claims.