The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Keelung mayoral candidate, Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應), yesterday called for a judicial investigation into the company finances of rival Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑).
Tsai said Hsieh allegedly lent NT$100 million (US$3.14 million at the current exchange rate) to a business executive, and allegedly registered shell companies in tax havens to engage in international money laundering.
Tsai said that he and most Keelung residents are regular people, who cannot imagine possessing NT$100 million, let alone giving it to a friend.
Photo: Lu Hsien-hsiu, Taipei Times
At a news conference yesterday, Hsieh “spoke of lending NT$100 million like it was an easy, simple money transfer. A regular person has no way of engaging in such high-stakes financing,” Tsai said.
Together with fellow DPP members, Tsai presented findings by prosecutors that Hsieh had in 2018 transferred US$3.2 million from three companies under his control to the accounts of Lin Kuan-pai (林冠百), the former chairman of Taipei-based Reliance Securities Co (德信證券).
The transfer was related to a case involving Gold Star International Co (金星國際投資) and Reliance Securities in which Lin and two other business associates were last month indicted on charges of money laundering and breach of trust for illegally transferring NT$152.5 million.
According to the indictment, Lin allegedly used several companies to evade taxes and hide his assets from regulators, while Hsieh allegedly colluded with him by lending him US$3.2 million and later collecting NT$3 million in interest.
Tsai slammed Hsieh for trying to evade his role in the case.
“He is contesting to become mayor of Keelung. How can our residents trust him to oversee the city’s finances and administration when he cannot even explain the financial transactions he has made,” Tsai said.
“Our voters must vote for change, for the city to progress. They do not want the return of a powerful and wealthy local family that controls many companies and engages in questionable financial dealings,” Tsai said.
Hsieh’s father was a KMT politician for decades.
At a news conference yesterday, Hsieh presented receipts and a signed loan agreement.
“Lin came to me in 2018, asking to borrow NT$100 million as a short-term loan. I agreed to it as Lin has operated in the securities market for many years, and I knew the finances of Reliance Securities,” he said.
“Lin said it was only a six-month loan, and he promised to pay it back by providing 33,000 shares from Reliance Securities as a guarantee on the loan,” Hsieh said.
He said after consulting with lawyers, he decided to make the loan, using the assets of Gold Star International, Vantage Metro Ltd (益都公司) and All-Aspect Enterprise Ltd (全方位公司), and paid the NT$100 million sum to Lin on July 4, 2018, as documented in the receipts.
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