EX-TAIWAN PRESIDENT GAVE ESTRADA $1-MILLION’. Former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui secretly donated $1 million to deposed President Joseph Estrada’s political campaign, local media reported yesterday.
In 1998, the funds were channeled through the Manila account of Eric Lin, deputy chairman of Taiwan’s Hong Kuo construction group, the United Daily News said, quoting investigators probing kickback allegations against financier Liu Tai-ying. Liu, now chairman of China Development Financial Holding Corp., once controlled the huge business empire of the former ruling Kumintang party (KMT).
The donation was made at the order of then President Lee Teng-hui, Liu told investigators. Liu claimed the funds were "contributions" to the KMT from Taiwan Pineapple and Top Construction in appreciation for financial help they received from the party’s business management committee, the paper said.
Liu has been under investigation for forgery and breach of trust charges for taking massive kickbacks from four companies — including Taiwan Pineapple and Top Construction — from 1996-1998. Investigators discovered some 400 million Taiwan dollars ($11.5 million) in "suspicious funds" channeled to the accounts of Liu’s two sons and confidantes after the four investments were made, the China Times has reported. Liu had denied "pocketing" any money.
Source: Philippine Star, 2 December 2002
FREEZE OF ESTRADA ASSETS COVERS SHARES IN 2 FIRMS. The recent order of the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court to freeze assets of ousted president Joseph Estrada covers shares of stocks of two companies owned by Estrada friend and so-called "plastics king" William Gatchalian, Equitable PCI Bank, a recipient of the order, said Tuesday.
Shares of hotel and casino operator Waterfront Philippines worth 450 million pesos and plastics company Wellex worth 300 million pesos were used as collateral for a loan drawn from the controversial "Jose Velarde" account in Equitable PCI, the bank said. Documents pertaining to the trust account, which were submitted to the court's sheriff's office, showed that a total of 750 million shares of the two Gatchalian companies served as collateral for the loan.
Chief sheriff Ed Urieta said the shares were considered covered by the freeze order. Equitable PCI on Tuesday notified the court of the account's existence, in response to the sheriff's Sept. 30 notice of garnishment.
Equitable PCI legal officer Gerardo Banzon reminded the court that the Bureau of Internal Revenue had placed the trust account under "constructive restraint" on Jan. 29, 2001, a week after Estrada's ouster. State prosecutors said the trust account was separate from the "Jose Velarde" savings account that was recently reported to have only 2,700 pesos left.
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 9 October 2002
VELARDE ACCOUNT PROVES ESTRADA'S INNOCENCE. A lawyer of deposed President Joseph Estrada yesterday said the Jose Velarde bank account proved that Estrada was innocent of the plunder charges against him because "the account balance is a far cry from the alleged billions it contained."
In a letter to the Sandiganbayan, Equitable PCI Bank legal advisory manager Gerardo Banzon said the controversial account that sparked Estrada's ouster in 2001 contains only P2,770.69. The letter was dated Sept. 18 and was received by the anti-graft court Monday.
Estrada lawyer Raymond Fortun said that proved that the account was not owned by Estrada, but by his associate Jaime Dichaves, adding that the government knew that all along. Dichaves, who remains at large, claimed during Estrada's failed impeachment trial early last year that he owned the account. He is one of the co-accused in Estrada's corruption trial.
"If they are insisting that Dichaves owns the account, how could he then withdraw it if he is out of town? He is in hiding. He has a warrant of arrest," said senior state prosecutor Alex Padilla. Padilla said they will find out if the account had been emptied or that was the amount the account had all along.
Estrada used the Velarde account to launder proceeds of illegal gambling kickbacks, embezzled state funds and profits from insider trading, among others. They say the account, which is one of the bases for the capital charge of plunder against him, contained P3.2 billion at one point.
Philippine Star, 25 September 2002
Estrada bank deposits frozen. The Sandiganbayan anti-graft court Monday ordered a freeze on bank deposits believed to be illegally amassed by ousted president Joseph Estrada. The court also ordered a freeze on the property of two of Estrada's co-accused, Charlie "Atong" Ang and Yolanda Ricaforte, in a four-billion-peso plunder case.
It placed under its custody assets registered under the name of "Jose Velarde" albeit without specifying an amount. Velarde was the alias Estrada used in signing bank documents purportedly to facilitate a loan of 500 million pesos to his businessman-friend William Gatchalian in February 2000. Records contained in an envelope that the Senate opened on Feb. 14, 2001, a month after the impeachment trial of Estrada was aborted, showed that the Velarde account with Equitable PCI Bank contained a total of 3.2 billion pesos in deposits.
Prosecutors sought the freeze order in a motion filed on Aug. 16, 2001, four months after the Office of the Ombudsman filed criminal charges against Estrada and his associates.
The motion was silent about other questionable, more publicized pieces of property traced to Estrada, like the so-called "Boracay mansion" in Quezon City and other opulent houses he had allegedly built for his mistresses.
The Sandiganbayan said the freeze order would henceforth prevent these assets from being lost, transferred or reduced in value should the accused be found guilty and ordered to pay the State for damages.
In a 10-page resolution, dated August 23, the special division granted the prosecution's motion for the issuance of a writ of preliminary attachment to Estrada et al.'s "properties whether real and personal ... sufficient to secure the amount of the alleged ill-gotten wealth" cited in the case. The Sandiganbayan ruling covered four specific items prosecutors initially wanted frozen pending their determination of Estrada's other alleged ill-gotten assets.
Of the four, two were said to belong not to Estrada himself but to his co-accused. These were:
Ang and Ricaforte are in the United States and have been fighting extradition efforts by the Philippines.
The court did not grant the prosecution's bid to include another 10 million pesos deposited in two accounts of the Erap Muslim Youth Foundation at the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) branch on Makati Avenue in Makati City. "There is so far no evidence with respect to the source of the amount (in UCPB)," the ruling said.
Asked about the "Boracay mansion" and other houses Estrada built for his mistresses, Solicitor General Simeon Marcelo spoke of another complaint for forfeiture initiated by civil society groups, which, according to him, already covered the controversial houses. Acting Ombudsman Margarito Gervacio said prosecutors had "not yet identified the owners (of the Boracay mansion), how it was acquired, and the source of the money used to purchase it."
Like Marcelo, Gervacio said prosecutors would work for including more items in court custody, such as pieces of property Gatchalian's Wellex group bought with the 500-million-peso loan drawn from the Velarde account. Gervacio said Wellex was reported to have intended to use the loan to acquire certain hotels and open casinos in them. But Gatchalian himself would not be criminally liable because he had nothing to do with how money flowed into the Velarde account.
Estrada, who was forced to step down in January 2001 following mass protests over his alleged corruption, is being held without bail for the capital charge of plunder. He also faces two charges of perjury and illegal use of an alias to hide secret bank accounts.
INQ7.net, 27 August 2002