The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee yesterday issued a new freeze order on a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) bank account after the Taipei High Administrative Court on Friday lifted a previous freeze on the account.
The committee in September ordered Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) to freeze a KMT account and prohibited any cash withdrawals from the account unless a withdrawal request was made to fulfill “legal obligations” or serve “justifiable purposes” such as paying employees’ salaries.
The first freeze was issued to prohibit the party from disposing of assets presumed to have been obtained illegally.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
However, the court ruled against that order, saying that the committee wrongly ordered SinoPac, a private organization without public authority, to enforce a vague administrative order, as the bank had no means to identify or verify the purpose of a withdrawal request.
The committee yesterday said that it will appeal the ruling and it issued another order freezing the SinoPac account, which specified that the committee has the authority to verify the purpose of a withdrawal request.
The committee also renewed an order asking the Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), which issued 10 checks worth a total of NT$520 million (US$16.5 million) — the same amount that had been withdrawn from the SinoPac account — to place the uncashed checks on hold.
The KMT cashed one of the checks on Aug. 30, prior to the first freeze order, to pay employees’ salaries and pensions.
“However, we have to admit that it is beyond the committee’s jurisdiction if the KMT transfers the checks to a third person to cash them,” committee Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said. “The KMT might thus successfully transfer its assets. That is the law’s framework and limitations.”
He urged the public not to help the KMT cash the checks and warned the party that it would be subject to a fine of one to three times the amount of the cashed checks should it try to redeem them without the committee’s approval.
The KMT has to request the committee’s approval if it wants to access the money in the SinoPac account, while the bank should not permit a withdrawal request without the committee’s approval, Koo said.
The committee has also asked the KMT Party History Institute to provide archived documents about the party’s financial activities over the years to facilitate its investigations into the assets of the KMT and its affiliated organizations, Koo said.
KMT Administration and Management Committee director Chiu Da-chan (邱大展) told a news conference later in the day that the committee was treating the judicial system with contempt and was engaged in a mudslinging campaign against the KMT.
Recent remarks and actions by Koo suggested he has acted as an investigator, prosecutor and judge, which bodes ill for the nation, Chiu said.
“The KMT’s reform efforts will not be halted just because of the committee’s actions, but streamlining our structures necessitates large scale layoffs ... and the party needs financial support to reach its reform goals,” Chiu said.
The KMT would file an appeal against the committee’s new administrative injunctions and also an administrative suit against the new freeze on its bank account, Chiu said.
Additional reporting by Stacy Hsu
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