The KMT is set to file a civil lawsuit within days against independent presidential candidate James Soong (
Political donations made by businessmen to the KMT through Soong when he was party secretary-general were "turned into his own possessions," Huang said.
The alleged embezzlement involves around NT$300 million, the KMT official said. Soong has also been accused of having KMT chops made and opening bank accounts without the party's authorization.
Soong's spokesman, Yen Jung-chang (顏榮昌), said the legal issues in the lawsuit would be handled by Soong's lawyers, while Soong himself called on judicial authorities to deal with it in a just way.
Yen also said Soong had not embezzled a cent from either the government or the KMT.
One analyst said yesterday that the lawsuit move is meant to keep Soong's financial scandal alive in the media by periodically reminding voters of its existence.
Allegations of the financial scandal first surfaced last Decem-ber when KMT legislator Yang Chi-hsiung (楊|N雄) accused the former provincial governor and his family of involvement in irregular money transactions involving hundreds of millions of NT dollars.
The first amount of money mentioned was NT$140 million but the numbers have snowballed to the NT$1.1 billion listed in an official report released last week by the Control Yuan, the watchdog body for government agencies and officials.
Soong has previously said that some NT$240 million, part of which was in his son's account, had been entrusted to him by KMT chairman and President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to perform various tasks. Soong also claimed that he had tried unsuccessfully to return the money to the KMT. Lee ferociously denounced Soong's explanation.
After a failed attempt to return the money, Soong's lawyer deposited it at the Taipei District Court, for the KMT to claim it later. At the time, KMT officials said the party would not accept a private settlement with Soong but would take the case to court.
The KMT spokesman said yesterday that the lawsuit against Soong was a legal, not political issue, but analysts believe otherwise.
The suit is not so much a bid for legal results as it is a move to prevent Soong from expanding his support base, said Wang Yeh-lih (
Many observers say Soong cannot be hurt much more by the scandal, since the people who do not believe the accusations will not do so whatever else happens.
Agreeing with this view, Wang said the KMT was not trying to use a lawsuit to draw Soong's core voters away from him, but to keep "swing voters" from joining his camp and limiting his support level at 25 percent.
A Control Yuan report that was released on Feb. 10 concluded that Soong had failed to properly report election expenses and overseas properties totaling NT$1.1 billion.
The report said Soong raised a total of NT$520 million in election donations, but reported only about NT$104 million to authorities.
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