The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) denied on Sunday that KMT Secretary-General Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) had asked People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to return millions of dollars it accused him of embezzling in 1999, in what has become known as the Chung Hsing Bills Finance scandal.
In the case, which came to light shortly before the 2000 presidential election, the KMT accused Soong, then the party’s secretary-general, of embezzling NT$240 million (US$8 million) in political donations from businesspeople and of using some of that money to buy US bonds in his son’s name.
After a failed attempt to return the money to KMT coffers, Soong asked the Taipei District Court to take custody of the funds in January 2000. Soong, who lost to Lien Chan (連戰) in the KMT primary to represent the party in the 2000 presidential election, ran as an independent candidate and founded the PFP later that year.
In May last year, a court decision allowed Soong to legally retrieve the funds.
Media reports recently said the KMT, concerned at soaring advertising costs for the presidential and legislative elections in January, had dispatched Liao to ask Soong to return the money.
After Soong rejected that overture, the KMT asked other senior party members to talk to him, only to encounter the same results, reports said, adding that the matter had yet to be resolved.
However, the KMT denied Liao discussed the matter with Soong and said that any allegations to that effect were false.
In a press release, the KMT said it was “actively pushing” for continued cooperation between the KMT and the PFP and hoped that Soong and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would meet face to face to discuss important issues related to the upcoming elections.
The NT$240 million from the Chung Hsing case was never considered a precondition for cooperation between the KMT and PFP, the press release said, adding that the media reports were “ill--intentioned slander” to prevent the two parties from cooperating.
Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman, said on Sunday the two parties had discussed the matter in the past and that the KMT had never insisted the money should be returned.
KMT Culture and Communication Commission director Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said that even if the money was eventually returned, it would be donated to charity and that claims in the media that the KMT wanted the funds to pay for election expenses were unfounded.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
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