Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus acting Secretary-General Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) yesterday urged prosecutors to probe a media allegation that 12 incumbent and former legislators and a religious figure received a large amount of money from Wang You-theng (王又曾), the fugitive founder of the Rebar Asia Pacific Group (力霸亞太企業集團).
Hsieh urged prosecutors to complete the investigation as soon as possible to clarify the matter.
He said KMT Legislator Kuo Su-chun (郭素春), who was allegedly among the 12 legislators, would cooperate with investigation.
The caucus' press conference came after a report by the Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday that said Wang had secretly paid a total of NT$5.6 billion (US$184 million) to the legislators between 1999 and 2006.
The newspaper claimed it had obtained a 30-page copy of Wang's remittance details, which it said prosecutors copied from Wang's personal notebook.
The report alleged that the money was paid to 13 people -- including Kuo, KMT legislators Lo Ming-tsai (
The money they individually received ranged from NT$268.5 million to NT$1.5 million, the report said, but it did not mention details of why they received the money.
Kuo yesterday dismissed the allegations.
"He [Wang] did not wire any money to my bank accounts, nor did I ever receive any money from him," Kuo said.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
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