Newsmakers: Former KMT heavyweight at heart of Zanadau probe

Liu and business allies also amassed a fortune from the local stock market by jointly purchasing shares of certain companies to push up their prices and selling them soon afterward. The Top Group was believed to have averted a financial crisis in 1998 in this manner.

Through playing the stock market and other maneuverings, Liu was able to cultivate an intricate web of business and political connections that includes CEOs from the Tuntex Group, the Core Pacific Group, the Ever Fortune Group and the Ruentex Group, to name just a few. An opportunist, Liu has befriended the DPP after the party swept into power in May 2000. At least 40 DPP lawmakers reportedly took donations from him during the legislative polls last year.

Presidential Secretary-General Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) said Friday a political heavyweight did ask President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to intervene on Liu's behalf after the Zanadau scandal hadsurfaced.

Some liken Liu to a time bomb whose explosion will jolt both the political and business communities.

"I bet the Liu probe worries many who played a part in his shoddy deals over the years," KMT Legislator Wu Den-yi (吳敦義) said. "I hope authorities will get to the bottom of the matter so as to free the nation from dirty money politics." Cynics, however, suspect the whole thing is a red herring to divert the public's attention away from the government crisis triggered by the mass protest by farmers and fishermen a week ago.

"That explained why the court rejected Liu's detention after all," said political commentator Timothy Ting (丁庭宇). "If that is really the case, the DPP government has made a big mistake."