Suspects in an investigation into accounting firms and companies linked to the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) were released on bail yesterday morning, a day after being questioned over allegations of fraud in campaign finance reporting.
Tuanmu Cheng (端木正), an accountant at Jing Hua CPA (精華會計師事務所) who was contracted by the TPP to handle financial reporting for TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) presidential bid, was released on bail of NT$1 million (US$30,945).
The amount was lowered after being initially set at NT$2 million.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Lee Wen-chuan (李文娟), director of marketing firm Muko (木可行銷公關), which handled events and merchandising for the campaign, was released on bail of NT$1.5 million.
They have been barred from leaving the country and are to wear electronic surveillance monitors.
Both are under investigation for forgery after discrepancies were found in TPP reporting of campaign payments to marketing firms.
The party earlier this week said that mistakes were made in 17 campaign finance declarations totaling about NT$18 million.
Tuanmu’s assistant Chen Wei-hsuan (陳韋瑄) and Muko accountant Ho Ai-ting (何璦廷) have also been named as suspects. Chen was released without bail, while Ho was released on bail of NT$500,000.
Figures within the TPP have blamed Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) for the situation and have demanded that she resign as a lawmaker.
Former TPP legislator Tsai Pi-ju (蔡壁如), a former aide to Ko , told reporters that Huang must take full responsibility for the scandal, as she was executive director of Ko’s campaign office for January’s election.
The party’s Central Evaluation Committee is to meet today to discuss the issue.
Huang, who was a Taipei deputy mayor from 2018 to 2022 while Ko was mayor of the capital, on Wednesday resigned as a member of the TPP Central Standing Committee.
“The case is being investigated and we should wait for the legal process to conclude,” Huang said. “I will respect any decision that the Central Evaluation Committee makes.”
TPP officials said that Tuanmu was in charge of the campaign expenses accounting and filing declarations to the Control Yuan, while Tuanmu has rejected accusations of wrongdoing.
Among the controversial account items was a campaign receipt for an order of boxed lunches from a Taipei restaurant totaling NT$960,110.
TPP spokeswoman Celina Wu (吳怡萱) said that there was a simple mistake when the figures were recorded.
“Actually, it was two receipts, one for NT$960 and another for NT$110, but they were mistakenly combined as NT$960,110,” Wu said. “We were also puzzled by the error.”
One receipt was dated last year and the other was from this year.
Wu said that it was unclear how the accountant had dealt with them.
“We are not sure if he filed the receipts together or separately in two declarations,” she said. “We will check the campaign expense declaration filed with the Control Yuan.”
Internet personality Liu Yu (劉宇), also known as Si Cha-mao (四叉貓), yesterday spoke with employees at the restaurant.
Liu said that the employees told him the restaurant is only open on weekdays, but the receipts showed that the sales took place on weekends.
The TPP needs to explain this discrepancy, he said.
Additional reporting by Chen Tsai-lin
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS