Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) allegedly pressed a construction company into offering a NT$14 million (US$459,997 at the current exchange rate) loan for a pre-sold luxury apartment he purchased from it in 2015, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said yesterday.
Taiwan Fertilizer Co initially refused when Han asked for the loan in November 2014, but agreed in April 2015 after Han’s wife, Lee Chia-fen (李佳芬), arranged three meetings between the company and a city councilor, Lin told a news conference in Taipei.
The purchase became the center of media attention after the Chinese-language Next Magazine on Wednesday reported that the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate had purchased a 90 ping (298m2) apartment in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港) for more than NT$70 million in 2011 and sold it in 2015 at a loss of about 3.5 percent.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Lin on Thursday said that Han allegedly used his political connections to demand a 20-year loan of more than NT$14 million from Taiwan Fertilizer to purchase the apartment, but did not offer many details or evidence.
At yesterday’s news conference, Lin presented copies of the Taipei City Government’s records of meetings held by a city councilor to resolve disputes between the company, Han and other buyers of its apartments.
The first meeting, on Dec. 24, 2014, prompted the company to waive a 15 percent fine on homebuyers who failed to pay overdue installments by Dec. 26, saving Han more than NT$10 million, Lin said.
Two more meetings in January 2015 led the company to agree to offer a 20-year loan of NT$1.3 billion to six buyers, including NT$14.38 million to Han, he said.
The loan breached the company’s policy, which bans it from offering loans longer than one year, he said.
Moreover, the loans were not approved by the firm’s board of directors and are nowhere to be found in its financial statements, he said, urging the Council of Agriculture, the company’s biggest shareholder, to launch an investigation.
“The reason so many are suffering in this world is because people like you are hiking up housing prices,” Lin said, an apparent reference to a remark of Han’s that “one must always keep in mind the many people who are suffering in this world.”
The council yesterday said it would ask Taiwan Fertilizer to submit a report about the loans and brief its board of directors within a week.
Han’s campaign office said that anyone who interprets an unprofitable apartment sale as a speculative investment designed to hike up housing prices must have either “a flawed intellect or the wrong attitude.”
Lin should do some research about President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 15 speculative real-estate investments in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), it said.
The office did not provide more details about the apartment, saying it had already explained the matter.
Should people find anything illegal with the sale, they are welcome to report it, it added.
Additional reporting by Wang Jung-hsiang and CNA
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
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
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
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