The National Women’s League donated a total of NT$11 million (US$370,171) to the New Taiwanese Cultural Foundation, an organization founded by former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the Executive Yuan’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee said.
The league also donated NT$12 million to the now-defunct Zephyr Foundation from 2013 to 2015, it said, adding that NT$31.72 million was transferred from Zephyr to Ma’s foundation when the former dissolved its accounts last year, it said.
Cultural foundation chairman Lin Te-jui (林德瑞) was the chairman of the Zephyr Foundation when it disbanded, it added.
The committee said that its investigations have discovered that the Zephyr Foundation had been funded largely through donations from the Far Eastern Group, automaker Yulon Group and the Fuhung Corp.
Its first chairman was Hsieh Meng-hsiung (謝孟雄), son of former vice president Hsieh Tung-min (謝東閔), it said.
Hsieh Meng-hsiung’s wife, Lin Cheng-chih (林澄枝), is a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice chairwoman, and is a former league standing committee member, the committee said.
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Kuo Shou-wang (郭壽旺), the former chief executive of the Zephyr Foundation, is a former director of the KMT’s National Development and Research Institute, it said.
Over the past 10 years, the league has transferred a total of NT$617 million to the KMT or its affiliated organizations, the committee said, adding that it would continue to trace the funds that remain unaccounted for.
Lin on Friday said that the transfer of funds from the Zephyr Foundation to the cultural foundation during the former’s dissolution was in accordance with the law, adding that the cultural foundation aimed at carrying on the functions of the Zephyr Foundation.
Regulations stipulate that as chairman of the Zephyr Foundation, he was authorized to transfer its assets to an organization “of similar nature” when it dissolved, Lin said, adding that the cultural foundation’s work with youth met this requirement.
He would continue to cultivate the nation’s youth in his new role as chairman of the cultural foundation, he said.
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