The latest issue of the Control Yuan’s “Anti-Corruption Gazette” released yesterday included financial disclosures by two Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential rivals: Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫).
Han and his wife, Lee Chia-fen (李佳芬), owned NT$45,596,744 (US$1,446,138) in savings and NT$14,041,203 in bonds, stocks and mutual funds, the report showed.
The savings represented an increase of more than NT$40 million from NT$2,444,905 in 2001 — the last time the couple declared their holdings when Han was a lawmaker, the gazette showed.
Photo: CNA
The couple owned one parcel of land and one building in Yunlin County’s Gukeng Township (古坑), both of which Lee had bought in 2001 for NT$3.65 million and NT$4.72 million respectively.
All of the couple’s financial obligations — about NT$12 million in mortgages and NT$879,000 in debts — were listed under Lee’s name.
Lee also owned the couple’s two vehicles: a Mitsubishi, bought in 2014 for NT$800,000, and a Lexus, bought last year for NT$2.2 million.
Chu and his wife, Kao Wan-chien (高婉倩), owned NT$32,422,74 in savings; NT$36,146,292 in bonds, stocks and mutual funds; and 12 parcels of land, the report showed.
The couple possessed five watches, with Chu owning two worth a combined NT$300,000 and Kao owning three worth NT$600,000.
Former premier William Lai (賴清德) and his wife, Wu Mei-ju (吳玫如), had joint savings of NT$23,589,695, which rose by about NT$190,000 from their last declaration.
Lai on Thursday lost his bid to represent the Democratic Progressive Party in the presidential election next year.
Lai’s and Wu’s joint assets — including one parcel of land and building, and a 2006 Toyota Camry, but no bonds, stocks or mutual funds — were little changed from their last declaration, the gazette said.
On March 29, the gazette published a summary of the financial disclosure of KMT Legislator and former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who earlier this month bowed out of the KMT’s presidential primary.
Wang and his wife, Chen Tsai-lien (陳彩蓮), had savings of NT$28,802,54, which shrank by about NT$3.95 million from their last declaration; about NT$560,300 in bonds and stocks; and 75 parcels of land and two buildings, the gazette said.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) declaration showed that he and his wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), jointly owned NT$24,469,487 in savings, up by NT$8,576,126 from their last declaration.
They also owned NT$3.08 million in mutual funds, down by about NT$500,000 from their previous report.
The couple possessed nine parcels of land and six buildings in Taipei, Hsinchu City and Penghu County.
Deducting political subsidies from money Ko borrowed for his re-election bid last year, the mayor was estimated to be NT$2,575,400 in debt, the gazette said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had savings of NT$54,060,872, up by about NT$1.87 million from her previous declaration.
She owed NT$1.06 million in mortgages and had taken a NT$207,000 short-term loan from Hua Nan Commercial Bank, the report said.
Tsai possessed four parcels of land and two buildings in Taipei and New Taipei City.
She had royalties from her autobiographies, From Fried Eggs With Onions to the Xiao Ing Bento (洋蔥炒蛋到小英便當) and Ing’s Clique: The Last Mile to Light Up Taiwan (英派 — 點亮台灣的一哩路), whose worth the Control Yuan was unable to determine.
Tsai’s mother passed away last year and Tsai had not completed the process for inheritance at the time of account.
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