Officials deny they were involved in Jin-Wen institute finance scandal

Two government officials yesterday denied accusations of their involvement in the financial scandal surrounding the private Jin-Wen Institution of Technology (景文技術學院).

According to local media reports, Vice Minister of Education Fan Sun-lu (范巽綠) and Secretary-General of the Presidential Office Yu Shyi-kun had reportedly inter-fered in the scandal by abusing their positions and influence.

"I never attempted to influence the investigative process in the Jin-Wen scandal. When I went to talk to Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗), I just told him to handle the matter strictly in accordance with the laws," Yu said.

Fan dismissed as "unbelievable" accusations that she did not report honestly to the minister on documents and evidence related to the Jin-Wen financial disputes.

Fan said she had been assigned by the education ministry to be the only channel for communicating with the Ministry of Justice's task force regarding the investigation into the scandal.

Fan said that in October -- after she had received records providing details that the institute's former chairman, Chang Wan-li (張萬利), had traded board seats illegally -- she passed the documents on to the investigation task force within two hours. She did not "deliberately retain documents" or "intend to hide the truth from the minister," she said.

Backing Fan and Yu's explanations, Tzeng said it was not improper for Fan to pass the documents directly on to the probe team because it was her duty to report directly to the task force.

As for Yu's clarification, Tzeng said that Yu had indeed told him to investigate the controversy with the justice authorities. "Yu merely came to me out of concern for the school's development," he said.

Following DPP legislator Chen Chin-jun's (陳景峻) forthright account yesterday echoing Friday reports that the education minister had been threatened by armed gangsters during a meeting with a former board member of the institute, Tzeng once again denied the matter.

Tzeng asked the media to stop circulating the rumors and stressed the ministry's stance that the scandal should be investigated according to the law, regardless of anyone's concern.

Speaking to the media on behalf of Tzeng, Fan said the story had been conveyed incorrectly.

According to Fan, it was not Tzeng who was threatened, but the creditors of the institution.

Fan said one of the school's creditors came to the education ministry to seek assistance after the ministry took over the institute last August when the scandal over the school's finances erupted.

He said that more than 20 guns had been placed on the table during a meeting of the school's creditors in July.

Only creditors who were associated with organized crime groups managed to claim their money back after the meeting. The others got nothing.

So the creditor had expressed hope the ministry would offer help now that the ministry was overseeing the school, Fan said.

Fan said that after being retold several times, the story had been completely distorted.

The institute is undergoing a board shake-up under the ministry's supervision following the exposure of the financial scandal in July.

But the issue has become extremely complicated because of reports that two factions of board members have engaged in a struggle to gain control over the board.

Both factions are reported to have invited members of different underworld gangs and politicians to join the negotiations and to exert their influences on the ministers handling the case.