http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080806/wl_asia_afp/francetaiwanmilitarycorruptionprobe_080806173901
France moves to dismiss Taiwan warship probe
21 minutes ago
PARIS (AFP) - Paris prosecutors said Wednesday they had called for France's biggest graft probe in 50 years to be dismissed without trial, after judges were repeatedly refused defence files on a 1991 warships deal with Taiwan.
The office of state prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin confirmed a report in Le Figaro newspaper saying he had requested the multi-billion-dollar corruption case to be dismissed for lack of evidence.
French judges wrapped up a five-year investigation in 2006 into alleged kickbacks paid on the sidelines of the deal, but were repeatedly denied access by the government to secret defence files at the heart of the case.
Writing to financial judges Renaud Van Ruymbeke and Xaviere Simeoni on July 22, the prosecutor said their investigation had not "brought to light the existence of retro-commissions" paid on the sidelines of the sale of six French frigates, according to Le Figaro.
The prosecutor also said the probe had "not enabled the beneficiaries to be identified."
The judges were expected to follow the prosecutor's recommendation and close the case, according to a source close to the investigation.
The probe centres on accusations that a substantial chunk of 2.8 billion dollars paid by Taiwan for six French-built frigates went on commissions to middlemen, politicians and military officers in Taiwan, China and France.
Taiwan's highest anti-corruption body has said as much as 400 million dollars might have been paid in bribes for the warships built by French defence company Thomson-CSF (now called Thales).
The scandal drew in a colourful cast of characters, including former French foreign minister Roland Dumas, his erstwhile mistress Christine Deviers-Joncour whom he later dubbed 'Mata Hari,' an ageing Chinese beauty queen and Loik Le Floch-Prigent, flamboyant ex-head of then state oil giant Elf.
Although Elf was not officially involved in the deal, it paid Deviers-Joncour to convince Dumas to drop his opposition to the sale. The former minister had feared it would strain Paris's ties with Beijing.
Dumas, who was heard as a witness in the case, said on French radio the prospect of a dismissal was "nothing to be proud of for the French judiciary."
The former minister has repeatedly claimed to know who received the alleged kickbacks, and renewed his criticism of successive governments for locking up documents that could have identified them.
"A lot of people who were in government at the time, who were in the high ranks of the civil service, also know. It's an open secret," he said.
Allegations of backhanders emerged after the body of the officer who ran the Taiwanese navy's weapons acquisitions office was found floating in the sea off the island's east coast in 1993.
Further suspicions arose when Swiss courts discovered 520 million dollars in accounts held by businessman Andrew Wang, the main suspect in the case, who was allegedly tasked with convincing Taiwan to buy the ships and renege on a nearly clinched deal with South Korea's Hyundai.
Wang has been dubbed "Mister Shampoo" by critics for his supposed wizardry as a money launderer.
Taiwan has sought the return of the 520 million dollars held on Wang's Swiss accounts, but Switzerland in April rejected the request.
A total of 900 million dollars remain frozen by Swiss banks on suspicion they were bribes.
In Taiwan, eight people including Wang have been charged in relation to the scandal. Thirteen officers and 15 arms dealers have already been imprisoned.
The Taiwan frigates affair was also at the origin of a political dirty tricks scandal, known as the Clearstream affair, in which top figures including French President Nicolas Sarkozy -- then interior minister -- were wrongly accused of receiving kickbacks from the sale.
The case could be a financial blow for France, which may be forced to fork out part of the hundreds of millions of euros claimed by Taiwan under the original contract, which specifically ruled out backhanders.
Taiwan is seeking damages of close to one billion euros from France before an international court of arbitration.
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