The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday told Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to come clean on how he amassed a vast fortune in stocks and government bonds in just four years.
In a counter-attack to KMT accusations that first lady Wu Shu-Chen (吳淑珍) was guilty of insider trading, DPP lawmakers said Lien had lied about not playing the stock market for the past four years because a recent property-disclosure record required of presidential candidates showed that the KMT leader had accumulated some NT$260 million worth of stocks and government bonds since 2000.
According to the reports handed over to the Central Election Commission when registering for the presidential election, Lien's movable property, including stocks, bonds and bank savings, has increased by NT$260 million over the past four years, while President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) personal assets have decreased by NT$30 million.
The KMT campaign headquarters said that the increase in Lien's wealth resulted from buying government bonds with money made from selling stocks and from the KMT chairman's other incomes, including rent revenue, pensions and stock interest.
DPP campaign headquarters spokesman Wu Nai-jen (
"The KMT's remarks are contradictory," Wu said, adding that "Lien has to explain his stock transactions in detail as NT$260 million is no small amount of money."
KMT Administration and Management Committee Director-General Chang Che-shen (
In response to Chang, DPP legislative caucus whip Tsai Huang-liang (
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