A man sprinkled feces on the premises of the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee in Taipei yesterday ahead of the committee’s first hearing on Friday.
The man, who is thought to be in his 60s, went to the reception desk at the committee’s offices and asked to see committee Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄), committee spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳) said.
However, when asked by a staffer whether he had booked an appointment with Koo, the man handed the staffer a plastic bottle filled with feces, she added.
The man took out another bottle and sprinkled feces on the floor in front of the reception desk before a security guard detained him, Shih said, adding that the man was later taken to a police station for questioning.
“His motives were not immediately known, as he mostly kept quiet,” she said.
It was the second time that the office was vandalized after two men last month threw rocks at the building housing the committee.
The committee is to hold a hearing on Friday to investigate whether Central Investment Co (中央投資公司) and Hsinyutai Co (欣裕台股份有限公司) were founded with funds from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The funds might have been raised by selling properties that the KMT took over from the Japanese colonial government, Shih said.
The hearing would be attended by the companies’ directors, KMT Administration Committee director Chu Da-chan (邱大展) and deputy director Lee Fu-hsuan (李福軒), as well as legal experts and historians.
Central Investment has an estimated value of NT$15.43 billion (US$492.5 million) and Hsinyutai, a spinoff of Central Investment, has about NT$200 million in assets, according to their financial statements for last year.
“The KMT and Central Investment should explain how the company raised its founding capital,” Shih said.
Meanwhile, KMT Legislator Chang Li-shan (張麗善) yesterday accused the committee of unauthorized law enforcement during a legislative question-and-answer session.
The committee last month asked Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) to freeze the KMT’s accounts and asked Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) to put on hold nine cashier’s checks worth NT$468 million, which Chang said violated the Banking Act (銀行法), which requires banks to deny requests from a third party to stop payment on deposits unless ordered by a court.
The committee’s assumption that the money in the KMT’s bank account was obtained illicitly without presenting evidence was against the principle of presumption of innocence, Chang said.
“How can the committee freeze the bank account without due procedure? It is against the law,” Chang said, likening the committee to a secret police agency.
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