Allegations that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) received a NT$200 million (US$6.2 million) off-the-books political donation from Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) made by media personality Clara Chou (周玉蔻) are being investigated by the Special Investigation Division (SID) of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, while Ma said yesterday that he was suing Chou in an individual capacity to defend the dignity of the head of state.
Chou has cited anonymous sources at the National Security Council that said the “Ma administration” — which she said referred to Ma himself — had privately accepted a NT$200 million political donation, severely tarnishing the image of the Ma administration as honest.
Chou said that Senhwa Biosciences (生華生物科技) chairman Benny Hu (胡定吾) was a key person in the process and the relationship between Hu, Ma and Ting Hsin had caused the Ma administration to cover up for Ting Hsin during food safety scandals earlier this year.
Photo: Pan Shao-tang, Taipei Times
SID Director Kuo Wen-tung (郭文東) said the division has assigned Prosecutor Lin Cheng-tsung (林承宗) to head the investigation of alleged violations of the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法).
The case is still in the evidence-gathering stage and there is no clear defendant as of yet, Kuo said, adding that the division was not ruling out questioning Chou.
The SID is only gathering evidence to determine whether the case would fall under the division’s jurisdiction, Kuo said, adding that if that was not the case, it would be transferred to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
The district prosecutors’ office would be kept in the loop during the investigation, Kuo said.
Presidential Office spokesperson Ma Wei-kuo (馬瑋國) said yesterday that the allegations were baseless slander and added that Ma had applauded the SID’s initiative to investigate the allegations.
The president has expressed his hope that the judiciary would be able to clear up the incident as soon as possible, Ma Wei-kuo said.
Ma Wei-kuo said the government’s stance on the food safety scandals involving Ting Hsin was that the judiciary should investigate the cases and punish violators of the law heavily.
Meanwhile, in response to Ma Ying-jeou’s litigation against her, Chou said yesterday that she had mentioned specific sources in all recent reports and should the case be taken to court she could prove that all her claims are based on truth by calling witnesses to the stand.
“Since I am the defendant in the suit Ma raised against me, I need not make any statements to the SID that would be disadvantageous to me,” Chou said.
However, she added that an exception could be made if the SID wished to look deeper into the possibility that the Ma administration has been covering for Ting Hsin.
Chou said that by law, the legality of the political donations lay within the jurisdiction of the Control Yuan and not the SID, adding that she would decide whether she would talk with the SID concerning the case today.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS