The Administrative Enforcement Agency’s Taipei Branch yesterday said it would sequester Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) assets this week after the party failed to meet a payment deadline.
The Cabinet’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee fined the KMT NT$864.8 million (US$28.6 million), which was to be paid on Friday.
If the value of the seized assets are not enough to offset the fine, a travel restriction or a warrant for arrest could be issued for KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義).
In June, the committee fined the KMT over 485 properties determined to be ill-gotten, which were partially acquired and expropriated by the KMT in 1947 after it designated them as “special state-owned properties.”
The KMT later sold all the properties.
KMT lawyers on Friday attempted to pay the fine with US dollar-denominated bonds issued by the then-KMT administration in 1947, which it claimed are worth NT$38.5 billion at the current exchange rate, despite the committee’s determination that the bonds are also ill-gotten assets.
The agency refused the bonds, and the KMT did not propose any other payment methods.
Branch chief enforcement officer Chung Chih-cheng (鍾志正) said letters instructing land registration offices to prepare paperwork for the seizure of 60 properties registered to the KMT would be sent.
The properties would be officially seized following on-site inspections, Chung said.
The branch was unable to provide an estimate of when or if the fine would be offset, as the properties need to be evaluated before foreclosure, he said.
If any of the properties fail to attract any buyers, the government would have to absorb the losses from the unpaid fine, he added.
The committee estimates that the combined value of KMT assets and KMT-controlled Central Investment Co and Hsinyutai Co shares, which have been confiscated by the government, should be enough to pay the fine, Chung said.
The agency and the committee agree that political donations, campaign donations and membership fees collected by the KMT are necessary to maintain its operations and should not be seized, he added.
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