An appeal has been sent to the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee alleging the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) illegally occupied land in Taipei’s Muzha (木柵) area on which the KMT-affiliated Institute on Policy Research and Development stands.
Accusing former KMT authorities of acquiring the land by illegal means in 1962, Yeh Sung-jen (葉頌仁), whose father owned four plots of land on which the institute was built, said the KMT forced his father to sign a contract at gunpoint and only paid one-tenth of the market value.
Yeh said the committee has promised to investigate the issue.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), who accompanied Yeh to a committee meeting on Friday, said the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office should launch another investigation into the case.
The land was sold to Yuan Li Construction Corp in 2006 for NT$4.3 billion (US$133 million at current exchange rates) when former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was Taipei mayor and KMT chairman.
It was alleged that Ma approved the sale of the land to Yuanlih Group to benefit Yuanlih because the land — of which 83 percent of the 7.4 hectares was for public service use — was rezoned by the Taipei City Government in 2008 under then-Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) to be a residential area.
Previous investigations by the Special Investigation Division concluded that allegations against Ma were unfounded.
The Executive Yuan’s party asset special task force in 2008 said that the KMT in 2006 had 1,011 properties, 593 plots of land and 418 buildings, registered under its name. At the time the land was valued at NT$2.9 billion.
The committee on Friday said the KMT now has 319 properties registered under its name and demanded an explanation on the sales of properties over the past decade.
According to sources, the remaining 319 properties were mostly bought during the 1950s and 1960s.
The committee said it needs to look into the original procurement papers for these assets to understand where the funding for their purchases came from and from whom they were bought.
The KMT should make clear the details regarding its sales of properties over the past decade and how much it profited from the sales, committee spokesperson Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳) said, adding that the committee welcomed any public help regarding its ongoing investigations.
The KMT said the majority of the sales had been organized in 2006 to come up with funding for fiscal 2006, while the sales were concluded in 2008.
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