National Women’s League assets worth NT$38.5 billion (US$1.32 billion), which were frozen in February, would be confiscated by the state if investigations determine them to be illegally acquired, the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee said.
The committee in February determined the league to be a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-affiliated organization and lodged formal complaints against former league chairwoman Cecilia Koo (辜嚴倬雲) and her daughter Koo Huai-ju (辜懷如) for allegedly destroying records.
Cecilia Koo in May last year moved 170 boxes containing league documents and accounts to a warehouse owned by the Koo family-operated Taiwan Cement Corp. In December last year, Koo Huai-ju and family assistant Liu Kai-li (劉凱理) reportedly destroyed most of the records with a paper shredder.
The committee said it filed formal complaints with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office against the two women and one employee for destroying the documents and obstructing its investigation after league employees testified that they were instructed to pack up league records in May last year.
A trial has been scheduled for Wednesday at which league deputy secretary-general Nancy Nee (汲宇荷) and league head of general affairs Chu Ai-na (朱愛娜) are to appear as witnesses, the committee said, adding that case defendant Cecilia Koo has yet to return from the US, where she has been staying.
Initial investigations into records from the past 10 years have already uncovered that the league transferred funds to the KMT over this period, the committee said, adding that five recovered boxes of documents showed that the KMT supplied the majority of military taxes and surcharges that were the league’s main source of income from 1955 to 1989.
Investigations of records from 1960 to 1989 show that the league’s income from military taxes and surcharges was not as much as the public perceived it to be, the committee said, adding that the league had other sources of revenue, receiving donations from theater ticket sales, the textile industry and bank interest, among other sources.
The league used the military taxes and surcharges to generate interest, rather than using the money to assist troops, as was intended, the committee said, adding that the league could earn annual interest of up to 10 percent during the economic boom years.
“Revenue from military taxes and surcharges was supposed to be spent on military barracks and on the troops… Where did the extra funds go?” committee spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳) said.
After the taxes and surcharges were discontinued in 1989, the league was asked by authorities to return unused funds, but it refused to do so, Shih said.
The donations made to the league are seen by some as tributes paid to [Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) wife and league founder] Soong Mayling (宋美齡), Shih said.
“They just spent the money however they wanted, nobody dared to pressure them to hand it over,” she said.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with