Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said that the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office was “following orders” when it decided to indict him and reassured the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Central Standing Committee that he did not undersell the party’s assets when he was party chairman.
Ma was invited by KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) to address the committee regarding his sales of Central Motion Picture Corp, Broadcasting Corp of China and China Television Co (CTV).
Although the KMT on Saturday last week said in a news release that the invitation was extended as a demonstration of the party’s belief in Ma’s integrity, Wu yesterday said that the party was “not trying to fight a certain government agency, nor endorsing a specific individual.”
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“We are simply hoping to examine the appropriateness of Ma’s handling of the companies’ sales through a fair and objective lens,” Wu said, adding that Ma, as a former KMT chairman, deserved a chance to explain his side of the story.
Ma on Tuesday last week was charged with breach of trust and contraventions of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) for his role in the KMT’s sales of several party assets in 2005 and 2006, including the three companies.
The two people who managed the KMT’s finances used an elaborate financial scheme, which Ma approved, that enabled the party to sell the media companies and other assets at below-market prices, which caused the KMT to lose NT$7.29 billion (US$238.38 million at the current exchange rate), the indictment said.
“I take full responsibility for what I say and I can assure each and every committee member that I did not undersell KMT assets when I was the party chairman,” Ma said. “Every decision was made based on my judgement of what was best for the party.”
Ma said the sales had already been scrutinized by the now-defunct Special Investigation Division, which cleared the case of any wrongdoings after an eight-year probe that questioned nearly 100 people.
That the case was reopened after the Democratic Progressive Party administration took office in 2016 and that he has been indicted reeks of political intervention, Ma said.
“I believe people’s eyes are sharp and they can know whether the prosecutors’ office was following orders when it decided to indict me,” he said.
Citing as an example the sale of KMT-run Hua Hsia Investment Holding Co’s shares in CTV to Jungli Investment Co, a subsidiary of what is now known as the Want Want China Times Group, Ma said that Jungli paid NT$892.5 million for the shares, which had a book value of about NT$700 million at the time.
“How could you call it underselling when the party sold the shares of a media company that had been in the red for years at a price that was higher than its book value?” Ma asked.
The donation of offshore patrol vessel Kinmen to the Philippines includes provisions that protect Taiwanese fishers and facilitate security cooperation across the First Island Chain, officials said yesterday. The comment was made during the Cabinet’s comprehensive administrative report at the legislature after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) expressed concerns about the decision to give a ship to a country whose coast guard had in 2013 fired on a Taiwanese trawler and killed its captain without provocation. The Cabinet should lay out the safeguards that have been established to prevent the Philippine government from using the Kinmen to harass, expel
GROWING TIES: The CGA is planning a goodwill mission to the Philippines, in what would be the first time since 1975 a Taiwanese paramilitary vessel has visited the country The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) plans to significantly expand its participation in international security cooperative frameworks and its operational capabilities, a budget proposal for next year showed. The budget indicates a transformation of the CGA from a maritime law enforcement arm into a national defense and intelligence gathering entity capable of tackling larger regional security matters. The proposal showed that personnel from the coast guard’s Intelligence Division and Special Action Support Center are to participate in high-level national security talks with the US. As the CGA has dealt with China’s rising “gray zone” threats around Taiwan, it has become a valuable asset to
The National Police Agency’s Third Special Police Corps yesterday said that from May to July, it intercepted five smuggling operations from China, seizing more than 70,000 counterfeit Beyblades with an estimated infringement value of NT$34.45 million (US$1.08 million). It added that any bootleg unit that reached the local market could present hidden health hazards to players. Beyblades, a line of spinning toy tops used in competitive gaming and developed in Japan by toy company Takara Tomy, have become popular in Taiwan, making them a target for fraudsters. The Third Special Police Corps, dedicated to safeguarding maritime borders and trade lines,
Five customers who made purchases at 7-Eleven stores across Taiwan won the top NT$10 million (US$313,716) special prize in the July-August uniform invoice lottery, including one who spent just NT$27 on photocopying, the convenience store chain said today. The five special prize winners made their purchases at stores in Taoyuan, Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung, 7-Eleven operator President Chain Store Corp said. The five winning purchases included NT$29 spent on snacks at a store in Taoyuan's Zhongli District (中壢), NT$27 on photocopying at a store in Taipei's Zhongzheng District (中正), NT$139 on City Cafe coffee and daily necessities at a store in Taipei's
RSS