The Control Yuan task force investigating the financial scandal surrounding independent presidential candidate James Soong (
"In order to assure financial order and to protect the privacy of customers, during the three-and-a-half hour meeting, we [the members of the Control Yuan] focused our questioning on leaks of [financial] information," said Lee Shen-yi (
In addition to questioning financial authorities, the Control Yuan yesterday also called on financial institutions involved in handling the questionable funds, such as the Chung Hsing Finance Bills Corp (
After meeting with Chiu yesterday, task force members said that the Bank of Taiwan had not been involved in the leaking of any data, but that Chung Hsing Bills Finance still needed further investigation.
"Judging from the documents offered by KMT legislator at-large Yang Chi-hsiung (
Ma said the Control Yuan had already asked Chung Hsing Bills Finance to produce the original, unaltered form as soon as possible, to allow them to continue looking into transactions related to alleged slush funds allegedly set up by Soong and his sister-in-law, Chen Pi-yun (
"The task force has also demanded that the finance ministry enhance [banks'] security measures for business clients, and to carefully look into whether any officials were involved in divulging business secrets to the media," Ma said.
As to the task force's next step, Ma said they would first try to restore the transaction form through computer simulation, instead of summoning Soong.
"Until the test results come out, we still lack concrete evidence that would determine who revealed this information," said Chao Ron-jaw (
The Control Yuan task force was established on Dec. 31 last year, aiming to piece together an accurate picture of the transactions involved in the scandal that has continued to dog the former provincial governor.
In related news yesterday, Soong's lawyer, Huang Tong-shong (
The Presidential Office, however, returned the letter to Huang yesterday, saying that the money was not Lee's, therefore he could not accept it.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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