Former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said that while he had met with the Wei (魏) family — founders of Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團) — a total of four times, he rejected reports that the meetings involved shady negotiations or donations.
Lo, who has been accused by media personality Clara Chou (周玉蔻) of acting in the Presidential Office as a “guardian angel” for Ting Hsin — the food giant scandalized for its failures at ensuring food safety — said on Tuesday that he had met with members of the family four times in 2013.
One was when Ting Hsin executives visited President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at the Presidential Office — a meeting he did not arrange — he told the Central News Agency.
The second and the third were meals with Ting Hsin chairman Wei Ying-chiao (魏應交), during which Wei mentioned his disagreements with Taipei Financial Center Corp chairwoman Christina Sung (宋文琪) on the ideas of running a business, he said.
The fourth was a visit to the Wei family’s ancestral building in Changhua County during the Lunar New Year holiday, at the family’s invitation, he added.
None were undertaken on the orders of the president, he said.
The Presidential Office released a statement backing Lo’s remarks, saying that the president did not ask Lo to visit the Wei family in Changhua and that as the case is now being handled by the judiciary: “Chou should present her evidence in court and squarely face the judicial examination.”
In response to Chou calling his statement “a confession” to her accusation, Lo said that although he had consulted with corporate representatives in his capacity as Presidential Office deputy secretary-general: “I never extracted any benefits for myself from the meetings or engaged in influence-peddling for any of the companies.”
“I have never denied that I had interactions and took meals with corporate executives, including those of Ting Hsin. What ‘confession’ exactly did I make?” he added.
However, “if the criticism leveled is that I should not have had any contact with them, I accept that,” he said, adding that he and his family had received no money from Ting Hsin and had never performed any influence-peddling for it.
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