Control Yuan to examine former president's taxes

A Control Yuan official said yesterday that the watchdog body would launch a probe into former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) annual assets declaration during his tenure as president to see whether Lee had reported his taxes accurately.

The move came as a response to an appeal by opposition legislators last month, who asked the Control Yuan to find out if Lee had evaded his taxes by failing to report having purchased government bonds worth NT$290 million.

"The request called into question whether there is NT$290 million worth of state bonds not included in Lee's annual assets declaration," said Control Yuan Secretary-General Tu Shan-liang (杜善良) at a press conference. "The focus of our probe will be to see whether Lee had indeed purchased government bonds worth of NT$290 million and then not reported it."

According to the Public Functionary Assets Disclosure Law (公職人員財產申報法), high-ranking officials are obliged to report their assets annually.

While noting that officials sometimes fail to make a complete assets report due to carelessness, Tu said that one could be fined between NT$30,000 to NT$600,000 for having deliberately evaded taxes.

Citing a newspaper report, PFP legislative leaders last month took the case to the highest government watchdog agency to launch a probe to see whether Lee had broken the law in a reported purchase of government bonds worth NT$290 million.

On March 27, the China Times quoted China Development Financial Holding Corp Chairman Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) as saying that Lee had commissioned him to purchase NT$290 million-worth of state bonds.

Liu, a former KMT business mogul, was detained on Feb. 10 pending an investigation into the Zanadau Development Corp (新瑞都) case.

Liu was reported to have told prosecutors during an interview that Lee had transferred NT$290 million to him, saying the funds came from campaign donations from Lee's supporters for the 1996 presidential election.

Liu is alleged to have told prosecutors that Lee asked him to "invest the money for Lee's personal benefit."

However, prosecutors did not discover any tax reports of Lee's regarding these investments.

Deputy convener of the PFP legislative caucus Chiu Yi (邱毅) and PFP legislative whip Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和) alleged that the former president might have failed to report the deal to the Control Yuan and, therefore, might have evaded his taxes.

Noting that the legislators' appeal was made based on newspaper reports, Tu said that the Control Yuan would verify relevant documents first with relevant departments at the Ministry of Finance before making any further inquiries.

Tu said that the Control Yuan would not rule out the possibility of summoning individuals or persons concerned to report to the watchdog.

Lee's office had previously issued a press release in response to the China Times report, urging "the media not to publish unconfirmed stories which will damage their own reputation and hurt innocent people."