The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee yesterday said it froze a bank account of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over the issuance of 10 checks worth a collective NT$520 million (US$16.54 million) immediately after a law was promulgated prohibiting political parties from disposing of assets presumed to have been obtained illegally.
Following the implementation on Aug. 10 of the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例), the KMT on Aug. 11 withdrew NT$520 million from Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) and asked Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) to issue 10 checks worth NT$52 million each, reportedly to pay for party expenses and employees’ salaries, committee spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳) said.
One check was cashed on Aug. 30, and funds were transferred to about 200 accounts, which might constitute a violation of the act, because the money is presumed to have been gained through illegal means and cannot be disposed of, Shih said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“The committee has asked SinoPac to freeze the KMT’s account, making it deposit-only,” committee Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said.
“Bank of Taiwan has been asked to place the nine uncashed checks on hold, in case anyone attempts to cash them,” Koo said.
If the cashed check was used to pay party employees’ salaries, the committee would ask the KMT, not the recipients, to return the money, Koo said.
Money in the SinoPac account is presumed to be ill-gotten, as the committee estimates that the KMT’s legitimate assets are worth about NT$630 million and its ill-gotten assets are worth NT$1.932 billion, while a total of NT$2.385 billion has been withdrawn from the account, Koo said.
Shih said the committee is to relaunch a Web site with the results of an investigation into ill-gotten party assets.
The Web site, launched in 2002 by the administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), was used to publish data gathered by an investigation between 2002 and 2007, but it was shut down in 2008 when former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office.
“The committee decided to relaunch the Web site, because such data should be available to the public in a democratic nation such as Taiwan,” Shih said.
The committee is to hold a hearing to determine whether two holding companies — Central Investment Co (中央投資公司) and Hsinyutai Co (欣裕台股份有限公司) — are KMT affiliate organizations, if the two companies’ five shareholders are KMT trustees and whether their shares should be transferred to the state.
KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said the party is legally required to pay employees salaries and pensions, but the government is preventing it from meeting such a requirement.
“It is a shame that instead of doing what is necessary, the government has launched a political vendetta with no regard of the law,” Hung said, adding that all of the KMT’s assets are legitimate.
The KMT does not rule out the possibility of initiating protests, in addition to taking legal action, Hung said.
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
RSS