The government could take over the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) headquarters in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) if Central Investment Co (中央投資) — a KMT-funded holding company that owns the building — is found to be an illegally obtained asset, Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said.
Koo said the committee is to hold an extraordinary meeting today to determine the status of Central Investment and its spinoff, Hsinyutai Co (欣裕台).
If the two companies are recognized as ill-gotten party assets, properties registered under the two companies — including the KMT headquarters — will be transferred to the government, Koo said during a radio interview on Wednesday.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
If Central Investment is ordered to return the property to the state, the building could be used for public purposes, such as a library, after a lease between the KMT and Central Investment expires, Koo said.
There are 18 firms registered under Central Investment, including the Chinese-language China Daily News, a construction company, a hotel in Palau and a British Virgin Island-registered company, and they will have to be returned to the state if their parent company is deemed to be ill-gotten assets, he added.
KMT officials condemned what they said were illegal and unconstitutional acts by the committee, adding that the party would take legal action if Central Investment was declared an ill-gotten asset.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The KMT provided the committee with a number of documents, which it said showed that the founding capital of Central Investment was obtained from legitimate sources, such as party membership fees and political donations, as well as profits generated by a KMT-owned company, KMT Administration and Management Committee director Chiu Da-chan (邱大展) said.
“The KMT has provided proof of the legitimacy of that income, but the committee has not taken this evidence into consideration and [plans to] recognize that income as having been obtained illegally,” Chiu said.
“History will remember if the committee decides to act regardless of the facts and do whatever it wants,” Chiu said.
According to the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例), the KMT should be given one year to declare its assets before the committee determines the status of these assets, he said.
While the committee already recognized Central Investment as a KMT-affiliated organization, it apparently plans to rule on the company’s assets before the KMT has submitted an asset declaration, a move that runs counter to the act, Chiu said.
Central Investment chairman Gordon Chen (陳樹) echoed Chiu’s sentiment, saying the company should be given one year to identify its sources of capital, which he said was collected from at least 16 companies in addition to the KMT.
Prior to that, the committee cannot not make a determination on the company’s assets, Chen said.
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