Is Chen Shui Bian guilty?

It would be a great mistake if Chen is indeed innocent, as he claimed. So, it is important that we study his response objectively, even thought we may all have some hypothesis.

First of all, Chen admitted he was guilty of perjury and falsification of documents. There is no question about it.

What about his defense on corruption charges?

(A) Chen compared the alleged corruption amount of NTD14.8M in three years vs his volunteered wage reduction of NT$5.5M/year. Then compared the total amount og his wage difference for 8 years (i.e. to 2008) vs the alleged amount for 2003-2005. It is easy to see the logical flaw here. (一個月剩四十二萬，一年十三個半月，因為薪水減半，一年就少領了五百五十萬，四年就少領兩千兩百萬、六年三千三百萬、八年四千四百萬，由此大家好好想想，我有必要拿發票貪污一千四百八十萬？)

• (a) If Chen continues to does this, before 2002 and beyond 2005, the total amount would have been NT$14.8/3x8=NT$40M. vs NT$44M wage saving
• (b) Prosecutor Eric Chen only pointed out the obvious, i.e. the rest of the State Affair Budget is also suspucious, though there was not enough evidence. The amount is about 2-3x the alleged (confirmed) corruption amount
• (c) There are other avenues of corruption, such as Sogo Gift Certificate, son-in-law cases, etc.
• I am not saying he is guilty on all these scandals/charges. I am just saying that there is enough financial incentive, which is much larger than the salary reduction, which is quite insignificant.
• (My personal opinion is that, the base salary should be raised to at least on par with that of Singapore, since Taiwan is a bigger economy than Singapore)

(B) 過去五年從民國九十一年到今年四月，犒賞文武百官，一年差不多八、九百萬，扣除固定費用支出，五年機密費用累計有五千九百萬，加上檢察官認定的一千兩百萬禮券與發票核銷的一千四百萬，我能使用差不多九千萬，但五年我支出為九千四百萬，如此入不敷出，還有可能放口袋？這是非常重要數字和簡單算術，希望大家能參考，由此可知，陳水扁是這樣的人？有必要收集發票貪污嗎？

• Chen needs to elborate on the arithmetics here, better ask an accountant to list the cashflow in a table. i.e. list the breakdown of his claimed 5 year expenditure of NT$94M, and be able to explain that there is no other source of fund that has paid for any of these items. Yes, very simple arithmetic. Chen should just publish this cashflow statement.

Related:
1) Fake reimbursement started before previous secret fund (Dang Yang) was closed
2) At least NT$1.8M spent on gift for "First Lady" (not on so-called diplomacy) - CSB admitted to Eric Chen
3)總統減薪及關閉國安秘帳，都是陳水扁被形勢所迫，不得不的作為
4) 卡西迪發聲明　駁斥陳水扁「訊息錯誤」
5) 李傑：早不用台商做情報
6) 單據如果是別人的，我們不會知道，除非有人檢舉，這個案子就是6月有人檢舉...Chart: President vs Auditor