President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) blasted independent presidential candidate James Soong's explanation of how NT$140 million came to be credited to the account of his family members, while the beleaguered candidate attempted a counterattack.
In a long-awaited press conference on Tuesday, Soong claimed that the money, in accounts held by his son, Soong Chen-yuan (
Lee described this version of events yesterday as "sheer nonsense."
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
At the weekly KMT Central Standing Committee meeting yesterday, Lee said: "Soong must assume I am too senile to remember past history; otherwise, why cook up a story so full of loopholes."
On Tuesday, Soong said: "At the end of 1992, under special directions from Lee [Teng-hui], more than NT$140 million was transferred from the special account of the KMT secretary-general to the accounts of my son and my sister-in law.
"The money was appropriated from both Hua Hsia Investment Holding Co [
Lee savaged this account in detail yesterday. First, he pointed out that neither the KMT's chairman or secretary-general -- the position Soong held at the time the money was transferred -- had a special account, and that no funds could be drawn without the countersignature of the chief of the party's financial department.
"Any deviation from this would be immediate reason to suspect the misappropriation of party funds," Lee said.
The president then went on to say that by late 1992, when the money transfer took place, both the state and the party had already instituted systems to take care of Chiang Ching-kuo's widow and descendants.
"The KMT set up a fund in Bank SinoPac [華信銀|澕 of approximately NT$26 million to cover the education expenses of Chiang Hsiao-wu's [蔣孝武] children," he said.
The president added: "There is no direct linkage between taking care of Chiang Ching-kuo's family and the transactions in the personal account of Soong's son."
Soong launched a counterattack last night, accusing the KMT of also being inconsistent.
"KMT officials yesterday [on Tuesday] said the fund to take care of the Chiang family was NT$30 million. Today [yesterday] Hsu Li-teh [a Presidential Office senior adviser] admitted it was NT$100 million. Thus, they are also inconsistent," Soong said.
"Those who were not in a position of dealing with this important matter back then should refrain from saying things at will," he continued. "I am not ruling out suing people who are saying untrue things about me."
Under instructions from Lee to shed as much light as possible on the case, other KMT officials gave more details of the measures to look after the Chiang family yesterday. Presidential Office spokesman Ting Yuan-chao (?B遠超) said that Chiang Ching-kuo's widow had received more than NT$45 million in pension payments as the surviving wife of a deceased head of state.
Hsu Li-teh (
He said that Soong's story had several loose ends. "How come Soong insisted on putting the money into his son's account, rather than keeping it with the party-established educational funds in Bank SinoPac?" he asked.
Hsu also said that he recalled "when Soong still served as KMT secretary-general, he withdrew NT$100 million from Hua Hsia Investment Holding Co [a party-owned company of which Soong was president], but only redeposited NT$26 million into the Bank SinoPac account."
Chou Kang-mei (
"After careful review and examination of the account records dated Dec. 30, 1992 [when a deposit of NT$106 million was made into Soong Chen Yuan's Chung Hsing Bills Finance account], I'm 100 percent sure that the money didn't come from Hua Hsia," she said.
Chou said she was as surprised as the public when she learned of Soong's explanation last night.
"I have no idea why Soong made such a remark and hope those who know the answer will come forward to share their knowledge with me," she said.
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