The Control Yuan yesterday said that PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and Deputy Secretary-General of the National Security Council Antonio Chiang (江春男) had deliberately failed to disclose assets worth a combined total of almost NT$8 million in the asset declarations required of public officials.
The lapses occurred in 2000 in the case of Soong and last year in Chiang's case, the Control Yuan said.
Neither man was available for comment as of press time yesterday.
Soong, the founder of the PFP and a former Taiwan provincial governor, will be fined NT$80,000 for his failure to report land and a house in California, the value of which is estimated to be about NT$4,412,265.
Chiang, the dean of Taiwan's dissident editors during the White Terror era and a former editor in chief of the Taipei Times, will be fined NT$70,000 for his failure to report savings deposits of NT$3,388,110.
Under the Law of Asset Disclosure by Public Functionaries (
The fines for false declarations vary according to the value of the assets concerned.
The Control Yuan will send copies of its findings to Soong and Chiang tomorrow. After that, the two may appeal the fines.
Control Yuan member and the convener of yesterday's meeting, Ma Yi-kung (馬以工), said that after collecting evidence, Control Yuan members found that the two men had "apparently filed dishonest asset reports."
In February 2000, Control Yuan members investigating the Chung Hsing Bills Finance scandal (
Soong was indicted for embezzlement in the case, but the charges were thrown out due to a lack of evidence in January this year. Prosecutors, however, reopened the case last month.
Asked why the Control Yuan was focusing exclusively on Soong's California property and not on any of the other charges against him, Ma said that the law was unclear as to whether the government watchdog's purview extends to areas other than the deliberate failure to report assets. He said that past practice dictates that if a reasonable explanation is given, the Control Yuan tends toward accepting that explanation.
"Current regulations do not clearly define unspent election funds as private assets. In practice, we usually regard officials as not intending to cover up such funds," Ma said.
Ma also declined to disclose what, if any, explanations were offered by Soong or Chiang for the non-declarations, saying that the Control Yuan would release its report when its probe is completed.
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