Taiwan prosecutors have recovered from abroad nearly 15 million US dollars (500 million New Taiwan dollars) of illegal earnings from the family of ex-leader Chen Shui-bian, local media reported Thursday.

Of the total 21 million US dollars that had been stashed away by Chen's family in Switzerland and then frozen by Swiss prosecutors, up to 7.25 million US dollars had been repatriated, according to local media.

All the money deposited by Chen's family into Swiss bank accounts, 1.2 billion New Taiwan dollars, had been identified by Taiwan prosecutors as illegal earnings, local media said.

Chen, 59, and his wife were both sentenced to life imprisonment by the Taipei District Court last year for corruption, embezzlement, money laundering and other abuses when he was in power from 2000 to 2008.

On June 11, the High Court upheld Chen's conviction on graft charges, but cut his life sentence to 20 years in prison after appeal. On June 25, Taiwan prosecutors appealed the decision at the High Court.