In yet another bizarre twist to the ever-expanding allegations of financial misdeeds by independent presidential candidate James Soong (
Accompanied by Chen Pi-yuan (
Soong personally signed an official letter late Wednesday night entrusting Hsieh to probe the accounts connected with the allegations of improper financial dealings.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Hsieh said the reason she took the job was because she felt the Ministry of Finance investigation of the matter was badly conducted.
"Since the scandal broke on Dec. 9, the amount involved soared from NT$140 million, to NT$240 million, to NT$440 million, and now to NT$1 billion. If we don't figure out what's going on, it will be a national disgrace," Hsieh said. "I want to know the truth. Moreover, I have warned Soong: `even if the truth is unfavorable to your campaign, I will stick to my principles,'" Hsieh said.
Hsieh also refuted suggestions she was allied with Soong.
"I refuse to become the member of any camp," Hsieh said.
Other members of the taskforce included two lawyers and an accountant.
Soong's sister-in-law, Chen Pi-yuan (
"With only some eighty days before the upcoming presidential election, we are afraid that people will be reluctant to believe us. We therefore need to enlist an impartial third party to take up the difficult investigation work," Chen said.
"The numbers game can be left to me, so Soong can proceed with disseminating his polices to the public," she said.
Although Hsieh and members of the group went to the finance ministry and the financial institutions involved in the issue -- including the Bank of Taiwan, First Commercial Bank and Chung Hsing Bills Finance Corp (
Except for promises by officials at Bank of Taiwan's Sungchiang branch (
Officials at the Ministry of Finance, however, claimed the taskforce had no legal status, and therefore there was no obligation to cooperate with the private investigation.
"Since they [Hsieh's taskforce] do not belong to a relevant institution, we do not have to either offer them data or to team up with them," said Yen Ching-chang (
The finance ministry's actions, however, appear to have indirectly helped to clarify several of the irregular financial dealings surrounding Soong's accounts in several areas.
Hsieh quoted financial officials as denying ever saying Soong's accounts may be responsible for the provincial government's massive deficit -- as has been reported in the press -- nor had they suggested that Soong was under suspicion of evading taxes.
"We have not conducted our investigation yet in the light of Soong's case; even though we want to make public the related background, we will follow the proper procedure," Yen said.
Hsieh said that she and the other members of the team had prepared five questions to ask Minister of Finance Paul Chiu (
She said, however, that Chiu had refused to reveal any further details, and brushed questions aside by claiming press reports that had quoted him as specifying how much money was in the accounts were untrue.
"I've never said [those things] before -- they were all produced by the media," she quoted Chiu as saying.
Hsieh, meanwhile, expressed disappointment over the day's search. "I failed to obtain any useful materials from [financial officials]," Hsieh said.
"Only when we open the process of requesting data from related agencies will the public understand how difficult it is for Soong's camp to collect enough evidence [to defend themselves]," Hsieh said.
The DPP's legislative caucus, meanwhile, yesterday challenged Hsieh's role on the investigation process.
"Hsieh has already been marked as one of Soong's loyal supporters -- how can she maintain fair judgement while inquiring about the money transactions?" DPP caucus leader Chen Zau-nan (
Political observers were equally as doubtful.
Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), seconded the opinion, described Hsieh's job as "mission impossible."
"The best Hsieh can do is to carefully check Soong's accounts, but since she does not actually have any special rights to make such an inquiry, she will never find out how the disputed political funds -- while Soong served as KMT secretary-general from 1989-1992 -- were used," Chin said.
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