A campaign spokesman for independent presidential candidate James Soong (
An anonymous official in Soong's inner circle said Soong would authorize professional accountants and lawyers to give a clear account for the process of this transaction within the next few days.
The official said Soong himself would choose an appropriate occasion to further clarify his stance.
Soong's spokesman, Chin Chin-sheng (?金生), said yesterday that during the provincial governor's campaign in 1994, Soong's sister-in-law, Chen Pi-yun (3笑捅3) -- who has been acting as the Soong family's financial advisor -- had used the account of her son, Wang Tzi-chiang (?y揉蛘j), to handle a small amount of electoral funds left over from the campaign.
The exact amount of money in the account has not yet been disclosed by the Soong camp, but another Soong campaign official who also declined to be named, disputed Chiu's claim in the legislature, Wednesday, that it contained NT$300 million of Soong's money.
The official said it came from the provincial governor's campaign fund and had already been spent in election-related activities.
Chin said Chiu was giving the "wrong impression to the public," adding "Chiu had deliberately divided the funds, floating them between the accounts of Chen and Wang into two separate packets of money."
Moreover, Chin said that Chen is a professional financial advisor working as an assistant manager at Chung Hsing Bills Corporation (
"Not just the Soong family, but other business figures also entrusted Chen to control their assets," Chin said.
"If the finance ministry wants to to mix Chen's money with Soong's, it would be a deliberate attempt to lead the public down the wrong path in this controversial matter," he said.
Chin said Soong's staff are collecting evidence, and that it is likely a lawsuit will be filed against Chiu and other government officials.
The third account was in addition to two accounts already revealed, which are in the name of Soong's son Soong Chen-yuan (
However, as independent pro-Soong legislator Roy Chu (周錫偉) pointed out the series of exposed financial transactions and accusations that have followed had a negative impact on Soong's ongoing signature drive and collection of election funds.
Chiu and other members of Soong's camp have therefore urged him to take the opportunity to end the controversy as soon as possible with a clarification.
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