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2012 ELECTIONS: Fubon
chairman did give money to KMT, DPP says
By Rich Chang / Staff Reporter
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said that although President Ma
Ying-jeou (馬英九) has denied receiving a political donation of NT$15 million
(US$500,000) from Fubon Financial, testimony in court by Fubon Financial
chairman Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) showed he had made a political donation in that
amount to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) questioned Ma during the last of
two presidential debates on Saturday on whether he had received a political
donation of NT$15 million from Fubon — a question Ma did not answer.
Showing a court document at a press conference yesterday, DPP spokesperson
Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said Daniel Tsai had testified in a money-laundering
hearing against former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in 2009.
An attorney for Chen asked Daniel Tsai at the time whether, during the 2008
presidential campaign, he or his family, Fubon Financial or companies under the
Fubon group, had ever made political donations to Ma.
“The Political Donations Act (政治獻金法) had passed. I remember we donated to the
KMT and we received a receipt. The amount should be NT$15 million,” Daniel Tsai
said in his testimony.
Chuang said Ma had to explain why he denied receiving the donation and where the
money was.
“Did the money enter Ma’s personal account? Or enter a KMT account? Ma has to
explain this to the public,” Chuang said.
Daniel Tsai, who took part in a marathon in Taipei sponsored by Fubon Financial,
said yesterday that his father, Tsai Wan-tsai (蔡萬才), founder and former chairman
of the Fubon Group, had testified in court that the group wanted to make a
political donation to Ma in 2008, but that Ma refused to accept it. However, he
confirmed that the KMT had received donations from Fubon in 2004.
Daniel Tsai did not respond to the DPP’s allegations.
Additional reporting by CNA
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