Taipei- Taiwan prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Singaporean with embezzling 3 million US dollars from Taiwan's diplomatic fund given to him to persuade Papua New Guinea (PNG) to drop its links with China and recognize Taiwan.

The Taipei Prosecutor's Office has seized Wu Shih-tsai's two apartments and freeze his bank account in Taiwan after the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) uncovered that Wu had pocketed 3 million US dollars from Taiwan's diplomatic fund, to buy two apartments with 2 million US dollars and put the other 1 million US dollars into his bank account.

Wu faces two charges - embezzlement plus defamation because last month he claimed an armed man had threatened to kill him on a Taipei street if he did not leave Taiwan at once.

"We checked tapes of street security cameras and did not see anyone threatening Wu. Wu confessed that he had lied to us because he wanted Taiwan police to protect him," CIB investigator Yang Hung-lin told reporters.

The botched diplomatic scandal occurred in 2006 when Taiwan was seeking to launch diplomatic ties with PNG, an island state in the Pacific. (dpa)