On July 4, 2008, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who was then KMT secretary-general, expressed concern about former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) decision to undersell then-KMT-owned Central Motion Picture Corp (CMPC, 中影) in 2006, saying that it would give the party “demonic trials.”
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday indicted Ma for breaching the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) in his handling of the sale of KMT assets.
During his time as KMT chairman, Ma authorized the sale of the company at a price significantly below market value.
“This is apparently a case in which control of the goods has been lost before the money was even been paid. It clearly goes against the basic principles of sales,” the indictment quoted Wu as writing in a report submitted to Ma.
“The return rate [of the sale] will surely put the KMT to all kinds of demonic trials in three years,” he was quoted as writing.
The company’s Taipei assets included the Chinese Culture and Movie Center in Shilin District (士林), the New World Building in Ximending (西門町) and the Hua Hsia Building on Bade Road.
While the three properties were valued at NT$3.6 billion (US$118.1 million at the current exchange rate), NT$1.65 billion and NT$2 billion respectively, the party reported their value at NT$2.8 billion, NT$1.4 billion and NT$2 billion and sold them for NT$2.6 billion, NT$1.2 billion and NT$1.5 billion, prosecutors said.
In August 2005, CMPC had the copyrights for more than 330 movies and TV shows that it had produced or coproduced, valued at NT$1.4 billion, but their value was never assessed when the firm was sold, they said.
The party’s underselling of the company caused the firm to lose NT$1.82 billion, they added.
At the time of the sale, CMPC was the biggest and only vertically integrated movie company in the nation.
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