Huang admits bribing Lien

Taiwan Pineapple Group vice-chairman Huang Tsung-hung (黃宗宏) wrote to the media yesterday, stating that he had twice provided political donations to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

In his letter, Huang said that his donations were similar to the Chen Yu-hao (陳由豪) bribery scandal.

The first incident transpired in 1998, when Huang gave NT$100 million to the KMT as a political donation to prevent the stock price of Taiwan Pineapple from falling.

"I invited Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) to use the KMT's money to help boost Taiwan Pineapple's stock price. Liu told me that as the legislative elections were approaching, I should pay the KMT NT$160 million as `donation' money. In reality, what I paid was about NT$100 million," wrote Huang.

The second incident took place in 1999, when former Pintung County Commissioner and current Legislator Wu Tse-yuan (伍澤元) offered to help Huang get a loan from a state-run bank if Huang agreed to pay a kickback.

"Due to the downswing of the real estate market, many of the projects that Taiwan Pineapple was working on were in financial crisis, and I needed to get some immediate financial assistance. Wu offered to help me get a loan of NT$3 billion from a state-run bank, via KMT Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) contacts, if I agreed to pay a kickback," Wu wrote in the letter.

According to Huang's letter, the state-run bank turned out to be Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) and the then bank chairman, Tsai Mao-hsing (蔡茂興), said out that 20 percent of the kickback would be used for Lien's presidential election campaign.

Huang wrote an NT$600 million check to Wu and got the loan from the bank.

In response to the allegations, KMT spokesman Alex Tsai (蔡正元) stated that Huang's letter was just meant to smear Lien.

"It is a calculated set-up," said KMT policy convener Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權).