Businesspeople rushed to deliver expensive jewelry and cardboard boxes stuffed with cash to the tree-canopied mansion of Taiwan's top leader to secure valuable political favors. Top-flight chefs prepared exotic dishes to tempt the palate -- and win the allegiance -- of his wife.
Those are some of the allegations emerging from a months-long corruption probe into the activities of former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian, who was indicted Friday on embezzlement and money laundering and granted conditional release from jail Saturday.
Chen's wife, along with 13 other family members and close associates, was also indicted in the case.
The depth of the charges against Chen stunned ordinary Taiwanese, who believed their rapidly evolving democracy had finally put an end to decades of endemic political corruption.
| It's taken us 200 years plus and we still have the likes of Dodd and Blago ... |
The 100-page indictment catalogued a litany of alleged offenses and shed new light on Chen's apparent taste for the high life. The son of a poor farmer from southern Taiwan, he was first elected president in 2000, riding to victory on the coattails of his clean-cut image and insistent pledges to clean up Taiwan's politics.
Appearing in court late Friday, Chen reaffirmed his innocence, claiming the $21 million his wife wired to their son's Swiss bank accounts came from leftover campaign donations. Taiwanese law permits such donations to be kept by political candidates. But that account failed to convince prosecutors, who accused Chen of "showing no remorse after committing severe crimes." |