Media personality Clara Chou (周玉蔻) yesterday gave her testimony and made more allegations as she went to the Special Investigation Division (SID) of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office to provide evidence to back her accusation that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had received a large sum of money as a political donation from the food-scandal-tainted Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團).
Accompanied by her lawyer, Chou brought files and documents to the session with the SID yesterday morning, which she said were evidence to present to Prosecutor Lin Cheng-tsung (林承宗), who is leading the investigation.
Chou told reporters that she has confidence in her evidence.
Photo: CNA
“All my statements are backed up by sources and secret witnesses,” she said.
While being interviewed by the media at her SID appearance, the radio host ignited more controversy by accusing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) of leaking classified government material to Ting Hsin.
“When Ting Hsin was embroiled in the food scandal earlier this year, Wu applied to the Ministry of Health and Welfare for access to internal confidential reports. Later on, Wu leaked these classified government information and reports to Ting Hsin,” Chou said.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
The veteran media personality went on the offensive against Ma and KMT officials.
“The Ma administration, including Ma himself, the KMT caucus at the legislature and KMT legislators were obvious in their group effort to protect Ting Hsin and shield the company from prosecution,” she said.
After her session with the SID, Chou told reporters that she had offered to name her “secret witnesses” so that the SID could investigate the four major alleged cases of bribery and influence-peddling involving Ma, his officials and Ting Hsin.
“I have the sources, the witnesses and details of where they got the information. When they decide to investigate these cases, I will cooperate fully with SID prosecutors and reveal the names and all the evidence,” she said.
Chou has caused political turmoil in the past week by going public with allegations that Ma received NT$200 million (US$6.3 million) in an off-the-books political donation from Ting Hsin, citing witnesses and sources among former officials in the National Security Council.
Her accusations have severely tarnished Ma’s image, which prompted him on Thursday to vow to file a lawsuit, in an individual capacity, against Chou.
The case is in the evidence-gathering stage and there is no clear defendant as yet, SID Director Kuo Wen-tung (郭文東) said.
The SID is looking at Chou’s statements and her evidence to determine whether the case falls under the division’s jurisdiction, Kuo said, adding that if not, it would be transferred to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘COMPREHENSIVE PLAN’: Lin Chia-lung said that the government was ready to talk about a variety of issues, including investment in and purchases from the US The National Stabilization Fund (NSF) yesterday announced that it would step in to staunch stock market losses for the ninth time in the nation’s history. An NSF board meeting, originally scheduled for Monday next week, was moved to yesterday after stocks plummeted in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 32 percent tariffs on Taiwan on Wednesday last week. Board members voted to support the stock market with the NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) fund, with injections of funds to begin as soon as today. The NSF in 2000 injected NT$120 billion to stabilize stocks, the most ever. The lowest amount it
NEGOTIATIONS: Taiwan has good relations with Washington and the outlook for the negotiations looks promising, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Taiwan’s GDP growth this year is expected to decrease by 0.43 to 1.61 percentage points due to the effects of US tariffs, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei yesterday, citing a preliminary estimate by a private research institution. Taiwan’s economy would be significantly affected by the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs slapped by the US, which took effect yesterday, Liu said, adding that GDP growth could fall below 3 percent and potentially even dip below 2 percent to 1.53 percent this year. The council has commissioned another institution
RSS