The Taipei Prosecutors’ Office today said a suspect’s residence in Hualien County was searched this morning over allegations that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) provided a fellow KMT member running in a legislative election with campaign gifts last year.
Fu has been accused of providing his party’s candidates with campaign gifts through a company called Shan Tian Xia (戰天下), which has a registered address in Hualien, before the legislative elections last year.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Chung Hsiao-ping (鍾小平) previously said he had received 10,000 campaign gifts from Fu, but later said they were paid for by his friend.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Prosecutors directed the Investigation Bureau’s Taipei division to search the offices of Shan Tian Xia, the residences of a man surnamed Su (蘇), the person in charge of the company, and the defendant, surnamed Lee (李), in Hualien and Taichung last month, on Tuesday and this morning respectively.
The searches came after political commentator Wen Lan-tung (溫朗東) last month accused Fu and Su of contravening the Business Entity Accounting Act (商業會計法), the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and forging documents.
Prosecutors said Fu’s residence and office were not searched and no defendants have yet been questioned.
Fu strongly condemned the search in a statement today, urging President William Lai (賴清德) to stop “persecuting” the opposition.
Prosecutors have closed cases regarding accusations made by the Democratic Progressive Party’s candidates about KMT candidates buying campaign gifts, the statement said.
It was legal and unrelated to foreign capital, yet Taipei prosecutors searched staff quarters in Hualien, despite prosecutors in other districts having concluded the case, it said.
The statement also accused prosecutors of leaking information to certain media outlets in breach of the principle of non-disclosure.
Not a single one of the campaign gifts contravenes the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), Fu told reporters at the Legislative Yuan.
Asked whether Chung’s comments led to the situation, Fu left without responding.
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