Pan-greens sue Ma over Taipei Fubon Bank case

Pan-green Taipei City councilors yesterday filed a lawsuit against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), accusing him of assisting Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行) in illegally profiting from its merger in 2005.

Independent Taipei City Councilor Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Lee Ching-feng (李慶鋒) yesterday filed the lawsuit at the Supreme Prosecutors Office's Special Investigation Panel, which said it would investigate the matter.

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 (富邦銀行) and municipal government owned Taipei Bank (台北銀行) during his tenure as mayor. The two banks were merged and named Taipei Fubon Bank on Jan. 1, 2005.

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.