Taiwanese businessman Andrew Wang, who died in 2015, was accused of taking bribes linked to a $2.8 billion contract for Taiwan to buy six Lafayette-class warships from France in 1991.

Taiwan has requested judicial assistance from Switzerland since 2001 in the corruption case because much of the ill-gotten money was kept in Swiss bank accounts.

Switzerland had seized some $900 million and, in 2005, handed Taiwan numerous documents linked to the accounts.

Swiss authorities transferred $138.04 million back to Taiwan on July 11, the ministry said in a statement, calling it a "historic breakthrough in judicial cooperation".

It said Switzerland had frozen more than 20 accounts controlled by the Wang family between 2001 and 2003 and had proposed to share the frozen assets.

"Since Switzerland has assisted in this case for more than 20 years... Taiwan agreed to share the assets with Switzerland at a ratio of 50 to 50 to facilitate long-term international collaboration," the ministry statement said.

Allegations of bribes first emerged in 1993 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.

Investigators believed he was murdered because he was ready to blow the whistle on rampant corruption in the military, including the Lafayette deal.

A French judicial probe opened in 2001 to investigate claims that much of the money paid by Taiwan went on commissions to local middlemen, politicians and military officers in China and France.

Wang, along with his wife and four children, was indicted in 2006 on corruption and money-laundering charges over the case, which had strained French ties with China at the time.

He was put on Taiwan's most-wanted list after he and his family fled the island shortly before the scandal broke in 1993.

Wang died in London in 2015 and was later removed from the wanted list. His family members are still wanted in Taiwan, according to prosecutors.

The restitution from Switzerland is the second batch that Taiwan recovered from overseas after Liechtenstein returned around $11 million in February, Taipei said.