Pan-green Taipei City councilors yesterday filed a lawsuit against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
Independent Taipei City Councilor Chien Yu-yen (
Chien alleged that Ma helped Taipei Fubon Bank amass more than NT$100 billion (US$3.2 billion) in illegal profits when it approved the merger of the privately owned Fubon Bank (
She said when the two banks were merged, the new entity acquired Taipei Bank's 44 branches, including land and property, based on their original value dating back to the 1960s and 1970s.
She said Ma might have violated the law because he did not order a reassessment of the value of Taipei Bank's real estate before selling it to the new bank.
She added that Taipei Bank's profit-generating capability was 2.75 times that of Fubon Bank, but the share swap ratio was set at a low 1.42 shares of Fubon Bank for each share of Taipei Bank.
Chien also alleged that on Nov. 30, 2006, Ma ordered the city government to deposit all of the city treasury's assets in Taipei Fubon Bank without holding a public bid.
She said the city council rejected a city government proposal to deposit the city's assets in Taipei Fubon Bank in July 2005, and the council thought Ma would hold a public tender to decide which bank would take the city's assets.
By ordering the treasury to put the funds in Taipei Fubon Bank, Ma might have violated the Government Procurement Law and illegally benefited the bank, she said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
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Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard