The US government Wednesday July 14 went to court seeking to expropriate two properties owned by former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian and his wife, allegedly bought with bribe money the couple received while in power.
According to the civil forfeiture complaint filed in New York and Virginia, former first lady Wu Shu-chen was paid six million dollars to prevent her husband's government from interfering with a company's takeover bid for a rival firm in Taiwan.
The complaint states Wu laundered the bribe money using shell companies and Swiss bank accounts controlled by her son and his wife. Some of the money was transferred to the United States to buy an apartment in Manhattan and a house in Keswick, Virginia. (Source: AFP, July 14, 2010).