Tue, Dec 28, 1999 page1

• MOF plans to send Soong case to Control Yuan

  SCANDAL An increasing number of investigations into the candidate's financial affairs are taking place, but little new information has been made public

  • By Oliver lin and Lin chieh-yu with Lo Yu-heng / STAFF REPORTERS LIBERTY TIMES REPORTER
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  In another new twist to the ongoing saga of financial irregularities regarding bank accounts held by family members and relatives of independent presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜), Minister of Finance Paul Chiu (邱正雄) declined to reveal the results of his ministry's investigations into Soong's finances, saying that the findings had to remain confidential while they were forwarded to the Control Yuan on Friday.

  Chiu's intention to submit his finding to the Control Yuan follows a request to the ministry by prosecutors for information on possible irregularities.

  Ironically the prosecutors request for information has resulted in less information becoming available to the public than might otherwise have been since as Chiu told the legislature's Finance Committee last week an article in taxation laws prohibits the ministry from releasing any information on its investigations into possible tax evasion cases.

  

  Minister of Finance Paul Chiu, center, speaks to reporters at a press conference yesterday while attempting to clarify the details of his ministry's investigation into the accounts of Chen Pi-yun, James Soong's sister-in-law.

  PHOTO: HAKU HUANG, LIBERTY TIMES

  As a result of this Chiu told the Finance Committee nothing new.

  This restriction, however, does not, however, apply to releasing information to the Control Yuan, the supreme watchdog for all government agencies, to an investigative team of which, Chiu said, his ministry will report all it has discovered.

  This might still frustrate the public's desire to know more about the scandal surrounding the presidential candidate since the Control Yuan is bound by the same rules of secrecy.

  It has, however, proved in the past to be less than leak-proof.

  Li Shen-yi (李伸一), a member of the Control Yuan's investigative team, said he had initiated the investigation as it seemed that some of the financial dealings in question came during Soong's term as provincial governor, and questions such as whether personal assets were honestly reported to the Control Yuan were at stake.

  Chiu also said that the Taipei Prosecutors' Office had made a telephone call to the ministry, requesting it to provide information related to Soong's case. The ministry will turn over its investigation results in one or two days, Chiu said.

  Chou Chih-jung (周志榮), a prosecutor and spokesman for the Taipei Prosecutors' Office, confirmed that Hung Tai-wen (洪泰文), the prosecutor in charge of the case, had issued an official letter to the finance ministry asking it to offer assistance in a case relating to Soong's alleged tax evasion.

  The prosecutors' office will soon begin questioning people involved in the case, prosecutors said.

  However, leaks from the ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB, 調查局) in the last couple of days suggest that much more than tax evasion might be involved.

  The MJIB is believed to have found that Chen Pi-yun (陳碧雲), Soong's sister-in-law who was in charge of his financial affairs, had sent US$6 million to the US through as many as 15 third-person accounts. The MJIB is now investigating whether these transfers were a form of money laundering.

  Wang Kuang-yu (王光宇), director of the bureau, confirmed yesterday that his agency had been investigating the scandal after KMT legislator Yang Chi-hsiung (楊吉雄) exposed Soong's financial dealings.

  "Prevention and suppression of money laundering is a major responsibility of the bureau's anti-money laundering center, which has taken the initiative to probe into the case," Wang said.

  However, Wang declined to release information on when, to whom, and how much money Chen transferred to the US, on grounds that secrecy had to be kept during the investigation, as demanded by related laws and regulations.

  MJIB sources also said that an official close to Soong had dispatched money to more than 30 provincial assembly deputies in 1994 during assembly elections and in 1995 during assembly speaker elections. The official, who is now holding a minister's portfolio, sent the money through one of Soong's relatives' bank accounts, the sources said.

  Transport minister Lin Feng-cheng (林豐正), who once served as a high provincial official during Soong's term as governor, was asked whether he was the man in question.

  "I have forgotten," he said, "it was too long ago."

  "It should be easy to find out where the money was from and going to after investigation," Lin said.

  Soong has yet to respond to the further accusations made against him in the past week. He says he is waiting for New Party legislator Hsieh Chi-ta (謝啟大) to report on the results of a private investigation started last week.

  Soong has since last week entrusted Hsieh to probe into the case as "independent investigator."

  But Hsieh and Soong's campaign officials have criticized the MJIB for spreading "unfounded rumors" as well as its failure to keep information relating to a case under investigation secret.

  Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), a political observer, said, however, that Hsieh did not have the authority she needed to make headway in the investigation, and could not possibly be widely seen to be impartial, as she had said that "even a rotten Soong was better than [President] Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and [DPP presidential candidate] Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) who are spreading dangerous words [that could bring war to Taiwan]."

  "While procedural justice [due process] may not be observed in this case, it is only in a dog fight in the KMT of this scale that the unlawful dealings within the party be exposed," Chin said.

  At a press conference on Dec. 9, Yang revealed that Soong's family were the beneficiaries of at least NT$140 million in mysterious bank deposits from unknown sources while Soong was the secretary-general of the KMT in the early 1990s. Since then, the amounts involved in the scandal have snowballed.

  According to a high level official at the finance ministry, the money now acknowledged by the Soong camp itself is NT$480 million, NT$240 million in Bank of Taiwan checks; NT$60 million in Chen's account; and US$60 million (around NT$180 million) transferred to the US.

  "That does not include what could have been spent already, such as the money possibly given to provincial assembly deputies," the official said.
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