SENATE COMMITTEE TO CONDUCT HEARING ON SP NOMINEE
Island Times
August 11, 2014
The Senate Judiciary and Governmental Affairs (JGA) Committee chaired by Senator J. Uduch Sengebau-Senior will conduct a hearing next week on the nomination of lawyer Robert Charles Lee to become the next Special Prosecutor (SP) of this island nation. The hearing will be held at the Senate chambers in Ngerulmud on August 19, 2014, starting at 10 AM. Lee’s name was submitted by President Remengesau to the Senate last month. Lee needs nine votes or two-thirds of the Senate membership in order to be confirmed.
The appointment of Lee came after the failed nomination of lawyer Dan Dorfman to the same post last year. After his nomination stalled at the Senate, Dorfman was subsequently hired to become the legal counsel of the Palau Ethics Commission and the Office of the Public Auditor.
The position of Special Prosecutor has been vacant for more than three years. The position was last held by Michael Copeland who resigned last April 2010
The Special Prosecutor is mandated to investigate white collar crimes and alleged wrongdoings committed by the President, Vice President, members of both houses of the Legislature and their staff. The President appoints a Special Prosecutor with the advice and consent of the Senate.
Prior to being nominated as SP, Lee was in private practice focusing on Family Law, Workers Compensation Defense, and Criminal Defense. Lee also had stints as a trial prosecutor for the Office of the State Attorney for the 10th Judicial Circuit of Florida in Bartow. From 2009 to 2011, he served as a trial prosecutor in the US territory of American Samoa.
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CHEN’S SON CALLS FOR HIS RELEASE AS PALAU CASE CLOSED
Island Times
August 11, 2014
NO MONEY-LAUNDERING: The SID has said it found no evidence that Chen Shui-bian had attempted to smuggle US$40 million when he visited Palau. The son of former president Chen Shui-bian yesterday pressed for his father’s release after the Special Investigation Division (SID) on Wednesday said it found no evidence of wrongdoing in the so-called “Palau affair.”
Chen Chih-chung said the charges against his father were politically motivated and should be redressed, urging the government to release the former president from prison. “After more than five years of investigation by the SID, it has dropped the case of money-laundering in Palau against the former president because it could not find any evidence of wrongdoing. But where is Chen Shui-bian? He has been in jail for nearly six years now. His mental condition and health are deteriorating, yet the government still refuses to grant him a medical parole,” Chen Chih-chung said.
Chen Chih-chung said his father had also been “found not guilty of misusing his state affairs fund and embezzling funds used by Ministry of Foreign Affairs to conduct diplomacy.” The Palau case was first reported by the Chinese-language Next Magazine in 2009. It alleged that when then-president Chen Shui-bian visited the nation’s diplomatically Palau in September 2006, he carried US$40 million with him on the presidential aircraft. Next Magazine alleged that Chen Shui-bian deposited the US$40 million in a bank in Palau, then wire-transferred the money to an account in the US for money-laundering purposes.
The SID’s investigation indicated that Chen Shui-bian visited Palau twice during terms as president: in January 2005 and September 2006. Staff who accompanied the president during these visits were questioned by the SID, and all testified that they did not see Chen Shui-bian carrying the money on the presidential aircraft or engaging in activity that may be construed as money-laundering. Banks, the judiciary agency and the Financial Intelligence Unit in Palau also indicated that the former president and his extended family have no bank accounts there. There was also no evidence of Chen or his extended family making a single or multiple deposits totaling up to US$40 million, the SID investigation showed.
When questioned by the SID, the nation’s ambassador to Palau at the time testified that Chen Shui-bian’s visit followed the official itinerary, with he himself accompanying the president the entire time.
He also said that Chen Shui-bian did not make any banking, real-estate or other business transactions while in Palau. Chen Shui-bian is serving 20 years’ jail for accepting bribes during his eight-year presidency. He was taken into custody shortly after he stepped down in 2008. (Taipei Times)
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(And a sub-cite shortcut to a 2009 Article from my time in AG Office . . . .)
Palau seeks assistance in money-laundering case
Publication Date:11/10/2009
Source: United Daily News
The Special Investigative Division of Taiwan’s Supreme Prosecutors Office said Nov. 9 that it has received information from authorities in Palau regarding their probe into suspected money laundering by former ROC President Chen Shui-bian. Chen Yun-nan, spokesman for the unit in charge of Chen’s corruption and money-laundering case, made the remarks in response to comments earlier the same day by Palauan President Johnson Toribiong who confirmed a suspicious transaction involving some US$41 million being routed through a local bank took place in 2005.
The financial institution in question, namely the Pacific Savings Bank, went bankrupt in 2007.
According to sources, the SID recently received a request for judicial assistance from Palauan authorities to provide official documents related to the suspected money-laundering case.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs remained low-keyed regarding the probe and Toribiong’s statement, with officials saying they could not comment “as the case has entered the judicial process.”
Two months earlier, the SID announced that it had not found the former first family to have wired US$41 million to Palau and that no related funds of the family were discovered in Japan or Palau.
Chen Yun-nan explained Nov. 9 that as Taiwan and Japan have not signed a judicial assistance pact, there is no way for Taiwan investigators to probe through diplomatic channels whether the former first family has any assets in Japan. He added that investigations at that time found no routing of US$41 million from Taiwan to Palau.
Speaking with reporters earlier in the day, Toribiong said that Palauan authorities are not clear on where the money came from or where it went. He also pointed out that it is not certain whether the money is connected to the former president as the funds are gone and many of the bank’s records have been destroyed since its collapse.
The Palauan president said that a special prosecutor has been appointed to handle the case, while at the same time the Palauan parliament has passed a resolution expressing the hope that Taiwan and Palau can work together to solve the case. (SB)
http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=76198&CtNode=447 ---------------------------------------------------------
OBICHANG EXPLAINS DELAY IN PROMULGATING OIL REGULATIONS
Island Times
August 08, 2014
Minister Charles Obichang of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Industries and Commerce (MPIIC) has explained the delay in promulgating the implementing rules and regulations of the Petroleum Act.
The MPIIC is the government agency that is responsible for implementing the rules and regulations of the National Petroleum Act (RPPL No. 8-37) and its complementary law, Petroleum Revenues Management and Sharing Act (RPPL No. 8-36).
Prospective oil investors, including the Singapore-based Cepu Sakti Energy (CSE) Pte Ltd. which has indicated willingness to spend $15 million for an oil exploration project here, said that they will only invest in Palau if such regulations are in place. In April of this year, the Senate passed a resolution urging President Remengesau to implement the oil regulations by securing the composition of the Investment Management Board of the Petroleum Funds.
Earlier, two members of the House of Delegates- Delegates Noah Kemesong of Kayangel and Marhence Madrangchar of Ngarchelong- have written Minister Obichang urging the full implementation of the act without undue delay. According to the two lawmakers, who were the authors of the Petroleum Act, drafts for the regulations are ready for promulgation and implementation. Likewise, Kayangel Governor Jeffrey Titiml and other officials of Kayangel have written the national government to ask for its help in having the rules and regulations in place. The proposed oil exploration is supposed to be conducted in the Palau North Block (PNB) off Kayangel.
In a letter to House of Delegates (HOD) Speaker Sabino Anastacio, Obichang explained the reason behind the delay in the promulgation of the oil regulations. The letter was dated July 23, 2014. “The purpose of this letter is to explain the delay of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Industries, and Commerce in implementing RPPL No. 8-36 and 8-37, which as you know, provide the legal framework to allow for the exploration of oil and gas in the Republic, as well as the legal framework for revenue sharing of the revenue derived from oil and gas production,” the first part of the letter reads. Obichang said the law specifically provides broad discretion to the Minister to determine whether to allow oil exploration for oil or drilling for oil in the Republic. “To begin with, I must refute any assertion that we “must” allow oil exploration in the Republic because these laws were passed. Section 2 of Chapter 4 of RPPL No. 8-37 provides that the “Minister may issue a Study License.” Section 3 of Chapter 4 of RPPL No. 8-37 provides that the “Minister may issue an Exploration License.” Section 4 of RPPL No. 8-37 provides that the “Minister may, subject to the approval of the Inter-Governmental Committee, issue a Production License.” Therefore the Minister may (i.e has the discretion) to issue a license that would allow an approved person to engage in studying whether oil exists, exploring for oil, or producing or extracting oil,” Obichang said.
Obichang said that at this time he is extremely hesitant to begin issuing licenses that would allow oil companies to engage in activity here. He said that the reasons that have emerged for his hesitation have developed as a result of in-depth discussions within the Ministry and consultations with the legal counsel of the Office of the President. The MPIIC Minister stressed that there are a number of issues in the laws that need to be addressed through regulations and unfortunately, the “final” regulations that were drafted in November of 2012 do not address all of the issues that need to be addressed. “In fact, the regulations pay so much attention to permitting regulations and so little attention to protecting the environment that it seems as though the regulations may have actually been drafted by an oil company,” Obichang explained.
Obichang also took issue with the four sets of draft regulations that are intended to implement RPPL Nos. 8-36 and 8-37. He said that those four sets of draft regulations, especially the Environmental regulations, have major drawbacks. He pointed out that the draft Environmental Regulations only devoted one page relating to responding to an oil spill and clean-up procedures. “I will not issue a single license under the authority of this Act until I am convinced that we have in place the strongest possible environmental regulations that include the best practices for preventing oil spills, responding to oil spills, and cleaning up an oil spill,” he said. Obichang said that more work is still needed to be done for such matters.
The MPIIC Minister also questioned the contract between Kayangel State and Palau Pacific Energy (PPE) which was initially entered into in 2002 and has seen numerous amendments, the most recent of which was executed in December of 2012. The contract stipulates that Kayangel State is entitled to twelve and a half percent of the oil “in kind” or the proceeds received by the licensee derived from the sale of petroleum. Obichang said there are a couple issues with this contract, “First, as should be obvious from what I discussed in the previous section, 12.5 percent of the net profit is absurdly low when compared to the 40 percent set forth in the law and the draft regulations, and even more absurd when compared to the 50 to 60 percent that is industry standard for an oil producing country to receive. In fact, in my opinion, when comparing 12.5 percent with 40 percent, the current contract between Kayangel State and Palau Energy Company is nothing short of a slap in the face of the people of Kayangel State,” he said.
“Second, the contract allows Palau Energy Company to “transfer or assign” any interest in the license, which makes it difficult to assess the reliability and expertise of the firm or oil company that will actually perform the exploration, drilling, and extraction because Palau Energy Company can simply assign the contract to any other company that it desires to assign the contract to,” he added. “The most recently drafted regulations, that are “final” as of November 2012, do not adequately address the issues that are currently present in the laws. Of particular note, this Ministry will not take any steps to issue licenses under the authority of RPPL No. 8-36 until I am convinced that the Republic has put in place the best practices for protection of our environment through operational rules and procedures that will limit the possibility of an oil spill, while also imposing strict liability upon oil companies that decide to engage in oil exploration or extraction within our jurisdiction. Finally, I believe that we must engage in a thorough investigation of the current contract between Kayangel State and Palau Energy Company, and any other contracts that may be in existence. We must do our due diligence before allowing a company to drill for oil in our pristine marine environment,” Obichang concludes.