الجمعة, يوليو 21st 2023
In connection with the corrupt affair surrounding the sale of six French warships, Switzerland has reimbursed Taiwan $138 million dollars. This is part of the amount that the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) ordered to be released in 2021.
إن AFP news agency reported on the payment on Wednesday, citing information from the Ministry of Justice in Taiwan. At the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency, information chief Ingrid Ryser wrote that the transfer was made subject to sharing.
This means that the countries involved each receive half of the amount. In early 2021, after Taiwan’s top court confirmed the illegal origin of the money, the FOJ ordered the frozen $266 million released.
On July 11, Switzerland transferred $138.04 million, according to the Taipei Ministry of Justice. It spoke of a historic breakthrough. Because Switzerland has been helping Taiwan on the matter for more than 20 years, Taiwan has accepted the partition, the Justice Ministry wrote. This should facilitate international cooperation in the long term.
According to Ingrid Ryser from the BJ, the sharing agreement provides for the funds to be shared equally. According to the law on the division of confiscated assets, which has been in force since August 1, 2004, this is the rule and such a division corresponds to standard Swiss practice.
Switzerland has previously applied international sharing agreements. From 2004 to 2015, as a result of such agreements, she received assets of criminal origin amounting to around CHF 90 million, as the Federal Office of Justice writes on the Internet. The participating countries almost always made half and half.
The frigate affair involves bribes and money laundering in connection with the sale of six French Thomson (later Thales) warships to Taiwan. The purchase contract was signed in 1991; the frigates cost $2.5 billion. Of this, $520 million is said to have flowed back as a bribe.
In 2001, Taiwan asked Switzerland for legal assistance in the complicated corruption proceedings. As a precaution, Switzerland blocked around 900 million dollars and in 2005 handed over extensive documents on the accounts concerned to Taiwan.
In 2007, with the consent of the account holders, 34 million were already returned to Taiwan. According to the 2021 FOJ, no sufficient connection with corruption could be proven for the rest of the blocked funds. According to information from 2021, the blocking was therefore lifted.
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