MOF questioned over corporate financial scandal

Lawmakers across party lines yesterday grilled the Minister of Finance for not revealing the problematic financial portfolios of poorly performing business ventures, including that of newly elected Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄), who was detained along with his wife Wu Te-mei (吳德美) on Sunday.

During the Legislative Yuan's finance committee meeting yesterday, KMT Legislator Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) accused Chu of intentionally draining capital from the An Feng Group (安鋒集團) by defaulting on a NT$40 billion syndicated bank loan.

He urged Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (林全) to make public the group's finances as well as those of the financially troubled Tuntex Group (東帝士集團), Yieh Loong Co (燁隆) and Chung Shing Commercial Bank (中興銀行).

Lin, in response, cited the confidentiality clause under the Bank Law and refused to make public the problematic conglomerates' financial conditions.

"Only when a verdict of guilty is reached [following Chu's indictment] can [the finance ministry] make their financial records public," Lin said.

Banks are urging An Feng to quickly pay up their defaulted loans, he said, while standing his ground on the issue.

KMT Legislator Chen Chieh (陳杰) repeated the same request on Yieh Loong's financial condition yesterday afternoon after the profitable steel company shocked the business community last Tuesday when it bounced a check for NT$49 million.

When asked about interest rates offered to the steelmaker, Wang Rong-jou (王榮周), chairman of Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀), told the legislature that the banks, in late October, decided to offer Yieh Loong a one-year rollover of its NT$18 billion-loan and an interest rate cut from 6 percent to 4.5 percent with interest payments in cash.

Upon hearing of the preferential interest rates, Chen immediately called the differing bank interest rates unfair to small and medium business and the public at large.

DPP Legislator Chu Hsing-yu (朱星羽), who chaired yesterday's finance-committee meeting, then cut in and claimed that Yieh Loong borrowed a total of NT$70 billion in bank loan, and it may soon default.