The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday continued to pressure President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) over what it said were illegal connections with a financial holding company and inappropriate dealings in a bank merger.
For a second consecutive day, DPP spokespeople and politicians called press conferences and disclosed information they had obtained to show that Ma had failed to avoid a conflict of interest in the merger of Fubon Bank (富邦銀行) and Taipei Bank (台北銀行) when he was Taipei mayor in 2002.
Fubon paid US$2.5 billion to acquire Taipei Bank in August 2002 during the first of Ma’s two terms as mayor.
Photo: CNA
The DPP’s move comes in the wake of allegations by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) profiteered from Yu Chang Biologics Co (宇昌生技股份有限公司), now known as TaiMed Biologics Co (中裕新藥股份有限公司), when she served as vice premier between 2006 and 2007.
The DPP said on Monday that Ma had accepted a NT$15 million (US$495,000) political donation from Fubon in either 2004 or 2008 and had met the bank’s executives on as many as six occasions before, during and after the merger in 2002 and 2003.
Ma denies both allegations and said he had only two meetings with the executives and they all took place after the merger.
Citing a document from the Taipei City Government’s Department of Finance, which was marked “urgent” and “top secret,” and the minutes of a Taipei Bank board meeting on Aug. 8, 2002, DPP spokesperson Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said that Ma’s “hasty” approval of the merger in one day was “suspicious.”
The approval of the merger was unprecedented because the document passed over the desks of nine officials — from the section chief to then-Taipei mayor Ma — in less than 24 hours, Chuang said.
“What was the hurry to get it done before the December [2002] mayoral election?” he asked.
The two banks signed the merger on Sept. 8, 2004, which means Ma’s meetings with Fubon executives were inappropriate for an elected official, he said.
The KMT has questioned Tsai’s integrity, saying she classified a document on the formation of Yu Chang as “secret” and approved government funding for a company of which she later serve as chairperson, Chuang said.
“So why did Ma approve the merger in one day and associate with people he should not have associated with?” he asked.
“The KMT’s scrutinizing of Tsai and [its defense of] Ma is an obvious double standard,” Chuang said.
In a newspaper ad published yesterday, the DPP legislative caucus cited four media stories between 2002 and 2003 that it said put Ma’s integrity over the merger in question.
The ad asked Ma why Fubon Bank, with total assets of NT$155.7 billion, was able to merge with the much larger Taipei Bank, which had total assets of NT$663.5 billion, and why the Taipei City -Government received only two of 11 seats on Fubon’s board, while the bank had seven.
The city government under Ma undervalued Taipei Bank and the former bank’s value was NT$6 -billion more than the city -government had calculated, DPP legislative candidate Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) said.
Taipei City Finance Department Commissioner Chiu Da-chan (邱大展) said Fubon Bank won the merger case with the highest bid among five companies, at NT$36 per share.
Then-Taipei Bank chairman Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井), who is currently a KMT legislative candidate, was quoted as saying in 2003 that the merger was “flawed” and that Taipei Bank should not have been the one to be merged, the ad said.
KMT Legislator Fei Hung-tai (費鴻泰), who served as vice speaker of the Taipei City Council in 2002, also questioned why the merger was never discussed in the city council, the ad said.
Chien and DPP Legislator Lee Chien-chang (李建昌) also accused Ma of abusing his power as mayor by selling 44 Taipei Bank properties to Fubon at prices much lower than market rates in August 2003.
For example, land at Taipei Bank’s Guting branch was sold for its 1977 purchase price, Chien said, adding that it was “beyond imagination that Taipei Bank did not go through an asset restructuring process before the merger deal.”
Ma also unilaterally designated Fubon as Taipei City Government’s partner to be in charge of all city funds and Goldman Sachs Taiwan as the consultant for the merger with executive orders, Lee said.
Ma’s re-election campaign team also went on the offensive yesterday and accused the DPP of “distorting the truth” and ignoring Ma’s explanations for election gains. It also urged the DPP to stop its “smear campaign.”
Ma campaign spokesman Yin Wei (殷瑋) dismissed Chuang’s claims that Ma had a private meeting with Fubon Financial chairman Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) prior to the merging of Fubon Bank and Taipei Bank on Aug. 8, 2002, and said that Ma had only met Fubon executives twice, rather than five times, as claimed by the DPP, adding that the meetings all took place after the merger.
Ma on Monday said his two meetings with Fubon executives took place on Sept. 16, 2002, and Aug. 11, 2003, and the meetings did not touch upon issues related to the merger or other municipal affairs.
“President Ma has explained the meetings with Fubon executives clearly, but the DPP intentionally distorted media reports against the president,” Yin said at campaign headquarters.
“We urge the DPP to stop manipulating the issue as a campaign tactic,” Yin said.
Yin added the camp would file a lawsuit against the DPP today for making false accusations against Ma with intentions to make Ma lose the presidential election, and therefore violating the Presidential and Election and Recall Act (選舉罷免法).
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
RSS